The longest road

If the old saying ‘promises are meant to be broken’ holds true, then it is appropriate for the unfulfilled promises made by the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited(NHIDCL) on completion schedules for the ongoing eight-year long construction of the four-lane National Highway way 29(Asian Highway -1) project between Dimapur and Kohima. The construction work of the four-lane road, entrusted to NHIDCL began in the year 2015 with the stipulated completion time of three years, that is by 2018. The rescheduled completion of the road project was then shifted to the end of 2019 and for which specific instruction have been given to the respective contracting firms on several occasions. The year 2019 came and went but the project remained far from complete. The ground reality of the project clearly indicates that the promises cannot be delivered because NHIDCL has failed to take action against the main contractor M/s Ramky – ECI (JV) and M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd for the inordinate delay. Rescheduling of deadline appears to have become the norm which also attracted the attention of the then Governor R.N.Ravi in 2015. Clearly frustrated by the inordinate delay, the Raj Bhavan issued a communiqué which stated : “Although the project was scheduled for completion in August 2019, even after 15 months of overshooting the deadline the completion of the project is not in sight.” On December 2, 2020, Nagaland’s lone Lok Sabha Member, Tokheho Yepthomi said that MoRTH Minister Gadkari had conveyed to him the assurance given by the contractors – M/s Ramky – ECI (JV) and M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd to “complete the Dimapur-Kohima 2-lane Black Top by 15th December 2020 and 4 Lane by 31st March 2021.” In contrast, work for construction of four-lane on the Guwahati-Shillong (NH 40) which was started in 2013 was completed by 2015.In 2021 then Nagaland Governor RN Ravi also expressed “serious displeasure to NHIDCL for not keeping their assurances on the progress of the Kohima-Dimapur 4-lane Highway construction.” He also conveyed his displeasure to contractors over “reckless rock blasting which is the cause of the heavy rock slide” and advised the State government to “explore legal actions and hold the erring contractors accountable.” This was an ominous warning as the July 4 2023 incident confirmed the worst. It may be recalled that the July 4 rockslide incident near old Chümoukedima check gate, resulted in the horrific deaths of two persons after rocks hurtling from the cliffs crushed inmates inside the cars they were travelling in. two others were also seriously injured. However, the implementing agency- the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) termed the incident simply as “ a natural calamity” and not as consequences of rock blasting. Scheduled completion of the NH 29 project has been extended from 2018 to 2019 to 2021 to 2022 to 2023. Today, NHIDCL has fixed the deadline for completion of the work project to March 2024. Even the stretch from Purana Bazar to Jharnapani is still to be fully completed. Major portions on the stretch from Lalmati/Peducha to Kohima is still a long way from completion and by the time it is completed by 2025, the other stretch between Dimapur to Jharnapani would require extensive repairs. This suggests that works on the project may continue till 2026.