(Published in The Sentinel Arunachal dated 10th Nov, 2009)
Nation’s security and Arunachal’s prosperity depends on 1,539 kms
Jarpum Gamlin
ITANAGAR, Nov 9: The Trans Arunachal Highway Project (TAHP) is running late by more than a year. One could perhaps pass this off as acceptable going by the mammoth size of the project, particularly when judged by the legendary Indian standards of meeting schedules and deadlines. But what is certainly unacceptable is that the delay has been not so much because of Indian standards on work schedules or the size of the work, as certain extraneous factors. And herein hangs a tale.
The Government of Arunachal Pradesh (GoAP) by its order (No SPWD-03/2009/1269-77) dated August 25, shook the TAHP’s nodal office (PWD –Eastern Zone) through a reference to another file (No HM (UD) UO No 312) dated August 24. Thus, a new agency called PWD (Highway) was created and a Chief Engineer of nodal agency (PWD-Eastern Zone) was posted in the ‘Highway department’ so created. The intent behind the Government move may have been good, but the fact remains that it resulted in all kinds of undesirable things one does not expect from the administration of a welfare state. There were ugly scenes involving the senior officers and the technocrats concerned, as chairs were occupied unceremoniously, threats and intimidations in various forms were issued by them against each other and, finally, as is expected in such acrimonious situations, the officers landed themselves up in the court premises rather than in their wretched offices. This obviously had had the biggest blow on the morale of the engineers on ground. But the latest news is that the chasm between, and amongst, the technocrats and bureaucrats has widened. The wall of mutual mistrust is being fortified by the day. The result too of this acrimony has been obvious – the TAHP still remains grounded.
According to sources in the know of things, in the instant case, the rot lies not so much in the bureaucracy or among the technocrats as in the political leadership of the Government. The original sin was committed by the Government when it hastily pushed through a fundamental reshuffle in the top echelons of the implementing departments and agencies. Sources said, this had more to do with the impending Assembly elections than with anything else. It is always advisable that the political leadership did its homework thoroughly before pushing through such ‘reforms’ in the structure of the delivery agencies and took all officers, technocrats concerned into confidence. Obviously Government lacked vision when undertaking the exercise, sources said. On the other hand, the unfortunate episode also clearly established that the bureaucrats and the technocrats concerned too lack the kind of professionalism one expects from people entrusted with such a huge project involving the safety, security of the State and comfort of the people.
Sources said, the Government needs to ensure that the guidelines of the Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways in respect of such mega road projects are strictly adhered to by everybody concerned in letter and spirit. The State PWD had, in fact docketed the guidelines (vide its letter No.
wherein the Ministry had cautioned the GoAP against two major shortcomings: long term focus missing, and deployment of key functionaries arbitrary. The Ministry had also dwelt in detail about several other key issues concerning its functioning vis-à-vis the project. According to the Ministry, these held good for all other north-eastern States, and not just Arunachal.
Sources said, the work of such complicated projects gets that much more complicated when the district administrations too are called in to play an equally, if not more, responsible role, involving as it is the eviction, settlement, and adequately compensating the affected people. Without the district administration’s word, the Department cannot say for sure the status of the project on a given day. After all, at the end of the day, it is the rehabilitation and settlement of the evicted people which is the most sensitive part of the entire exercise, sources said; adding that the GoAP also needs to monitor that there was perfect coordination between the nodal agency and the people in the field.
It may be mentioned here that the Trans Arunachal Highway project (TAHP) has been envisaged as a two-lane National Highway project, covering a distance of 1539 kms. Further, the TAHP will have two lane feeder roads, sponsored by the Ministry of surface Trnsport and Highways under special accelerated road development programme (SARDP-North East). These roads will connect the districts headquarters. These feeder roads will cover a distance of 2405.5 kms. Further, the Home Ministry too will sponsor tertiary roads up to the border post/ towns under another special programme called ‘Border Area Development Programme’ (BADP). The estimated cost of construction of each kilometer is Rs 6 crore, provide there is no project over-run.
Sources said, the TAHP therefore, must not been seen in isolation as just a project like any other. TAHP is a catalytic project. Success or failure of these road projects will determine the future of ‘big ticket’ projects under not only the SARDP-NE or BADP, but also those in the hydro-power, tourism and perhaps several other key sectors of the economy of the State that are already in the pipeline or would come up at a later stage.
Past experience shows that without road infrastructure, Arunachal shall never realize its potential. It has to be acknowledged that, despite best efforts, only thing that stood between ‘tourism-potential’ and ‘tourism-performance’ has been the road-infrastructure. Even today, most of the hydro-power developers find ‘road-infrastructure’ as the only bottle-neck. Unless road infrastructure improves, hydro-power projects cannot take off. It is on record that hydro developers are aggressively going ahead with the projects and are expecting the government to deliver the goods on road connectivity. With stakes so high and the deadline being short; the TAHP needs not only priority consideration from the Government, but the legendary missionary zeal of the bureaucrats, technocrats and the society at large. The civil society too needs to ensure that work of the projects is not halted over trivial issues or demands, sources stressed. But more than anything else, what the concerned citizens want to know at the moment from the Government is: why is it that the PWD (Highways) is being made to function with just the Chief Engineer and his driver since August 25?
Jarpum Gamlin
ITANAGAR, Nov 9: The Trans Arunachal Highway Project (TAHP) is running late by more than a year. One could perhaps pass this off as acceptable going by the mammoth size of the project, particularly when judged by the legendary Indian standards of meeting schedules and deadlines. But what is certainly unacceptable is that the delay has been not so much because of Indian standards on work schedules or the size of the work, as certain extraneous factors. And herein hangs a tale.
The Government of Arunachal Pradesh (GoAP) by its order (No SPWD-03/2009/1269-77) dated August 25, shook the TAHP’s nodal office (PWD –Eastern Zone) through a reference to another file (No HM (UD) UO No 312) dated August 24. Thus, a new agency called PWD (Highway) was created and a Chief Engineer of nodal agency (PWD-Eastern Zone) was posted in the ‘Highway department’ so created. The intent behind the Government move may have been good, but the fact remains that it resulted in all kinds of undesirable things one does not expect from the administration of a welfare state. There were ugly scenes involving the senior officers and the technocrats concerned, as chairs were occupied unceremoniously, threats and intimidations in various forms were issued by them against each other and, finally, as is expected in such acrimonious situations, the officers landed themselves up in the court premises rather than in their wretched offices. This obviously had had the biggest blow on the morale of the engineers on ground. But the latest news is that the chasm between, and amongst, the technocrats and bureaucrats has widened. The wall of mutual mistrust is being fortified by the day. The result too of this acrimony has been obvious – the TAHP still remains grounded.
According to sources in the know of things, in the instant case, the rot lies not so much in the bureaucracy or among the technocrats as in the political leadership of the Government. The original sin was committed by the Government when it hastily pushed through a fundamental reshuffle in the top echelons of the implementing departments and agencies. Sources said, this had more to do with the impending Assembly elections than with anything else. It is always advisable that the political leadership did its homework thoroughly before pushing through such ‘reforms’ in the structure of the delivery agencies and took all officers, technocrats concerned into confidence. Obviously Government lacked vision when undertaking the exercise, sources said. On the other hand, the unfortunate episode also clearly established that the bureaucrats and the technocrats concerned too lack the kind of professionalism one expects from people entrusted with such a huge project involving the safety, security of the State and comfort of the people.
Sources said, the Government needs to ensure that the guidelines of the Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways in respect of such mega road projects are strictly adhered to by everybody concerned in letter and spirit. The State PWD had, in fact docketed the guidelines (vide its letter No.
wherein the Ministry had cautioned the GoAP against two major shortcomings: long term focus missing, and deployment of key functionaries arbitrary. The Ministry had also dwelt in detail about several other key issues concerning its functioning vis-à-vis the project. According to the Ministry, these held good for all other north-eastern States, and not just Arunachal.
Sources said, the work of such complicated projects gets that much more complicated when the district administrations too are called in to play an equally, if not more, responsible role, involving as it is the eviction, settlement, and adequately compensating the affected people. Without the district administration’s word, the Department cannot say for sure the status of the project on a given day. After all, at the end of the day, it is the rehabilitation and settlement of the evicted people which is the most sensitive part of the entire exercise, sources said; adding that the GoAP also needs to monitor that there was perfect coordination between the nodal agency and the people in the field.
It may be mentioned here that the Trans Arunachal Highway project (TAHP) has been envisaged as a two-lane National Highway project, covering a distance of 1539 kms. Further, the TAHP will have two lane feeder roads, sponsored by the Ministry of surface Trnsport and Highways under special accelerated road development programme (SARDP-North East). These roads will connect the districts headquarters. These feeder roads will cover a distance of 2405.5 kms. Further, the Home Ministry too will sponsor tertiary roads up to the border post/ towns under another special programme called ‘Border Area Development Programme’ (BADP). The estimated cost of construction of each kilometer is Rs 6 crore, provide there is no project over-run.
Sources said, the TAHP therefore, must not been seen in isolation as just a project like any other. TAHP is a catalytic project. Success or failure of these road projects will determine the future of ‘big ticket’ projects under not only the SARDP-NE or BADP, but also those in the hydro-power, tourism and perhaps several other key sectors of the economy of the State that are already in the pipeline or would come up at a later stage.
Past experience shows that without road infrastructure, Arunachal shall never realize its potential. It has to be acknowledged that, despite best efforts, only thing that stood between ‘tourism-potential’ and ‘tourism-performance’ has been the road-infrastructure. Even today, most of the hydro-power developers find ‘road-infrastructure’ as the only bottle-neck. Unless road infrastructure improves, hydro-power projects cannot take off. It is on record that hydro developers are aggressively going ahead with the projects and are expecting the government to deliver the goods on road connectivity. With stakes so high and the deadline being short; the TAHP needs not only priority consideration from the Government, but the legendary missionary zeal of the bureaucrats, technocrats and the society at large. The civil society too needs to ensure that work of the projects is not halted over trivial issues or demands, sources stressed. But more than anything else, what the concerned citizens want to know at the moment from the Government is: why is it that the PWD (Highways) is being made to function with just the Chief Engineer and his driver since August 25?
The colour scheme change is much better, easy on the eyes. As for the article, that's the 1st investigative piece I've read in a local daily since my 11 years stay in Itanagar. So, congratulations n well written. It would have however been better if you'd named names!!!!
ReplyDeletethis piece seems to b a very clear n honest scrutiny of the issue at hand...but i feel der is a total lack of political will,here people like jarpum can make a difference
ReplyDelete