By Moa Jamir
Every monsoon in Nagaland arrives with a familiar picture. As roads cave in, asphalt peels away and potholes expand into craters, government departments point to rainfall as the principal culprit, while commuters once again adjust to disruption as a seasonal norm. The argument, repeated year after year, suggests that the monsoon is an unpredictable disruption rather than an annual certainty.
Yet in a state where heavy rains are not an anomaly but a seasonal guarantee, blaming the weather has increasingly become a convenient alibi for institutional inertia.
The irony is that Nagaland’s road construction calendar is well known. There exists a limited but workable “window period” for road construction and repair, typically from October to April. This dry season should ideally witness a flurry of activity across highways, urban roads and rural links. Instead, what the public witnesses is a prolonged lull, broken occasionally by patchwork repairs that rarely survive a full monsoon cycle.
From the much-discussed railway overbridge in Dimapur to the roads in and around the state’s commercial capital, the picture is uniformly bleak. Dimapur’s arterial roads, which bear the daily burden of trade, transport and mobility, are riddled with damage. The stretch of National Highway-29 from Purana Bazaar to the Chathe River Bridge, a critical gateway, has become emblematic of neglect.
Similarly, both NH-29 and NH-2, lifelines connecting the state internally and externally, are in varying states of disrepair. These are not remote village roads but national highways, meant to meet minimum standards of durability and safety. The dilapidated condition of the Chathe River Bridge, the gateway to the hill section of the state, further underscores the problem.
What is perhaps more troubling is the sense of suspended animation that seems to define not just the road sector but development in general. Announcements are made, assurances given, and meetings convened, but tangible outcomes remain elusive. The Deputy Chief Minister and Minister in charge of Roads (NH) had earlier spoken of instituting monthly review meetings to monitor road projects. Beyond the initial communication, however, there has been little public clarity on progress, timelines or accountability. In the absence of transparent updates, the promise risks becoming another entry in a long list of well-intentioned but unrealised commitments.
As the current financial year draws to a close, questions become sharper. With funds tied to annual cycles, delays now risk pushing meaningful work into the next financial year. But by then, the pre-monsoon period would already be approaching, effectively shrinking the construction window once again. This cyclical paralysis ensures that by the time one season ends, another explanation is ready.
Roads are not merely physical infrastructure; they are the backbone of economic activity, healthcare access, education and governance. In a hill state like Nagaland, where terrain already poses natural challenges, the failure to maintain roads compounds isolation and raises costs for both the state and its citizens.
Development cannot remain perpetually “under process.” If Nagaland is serious about growth, connectivity must move from rhetoric to results. Road construction is not only about building new infrastructure but also about sustained maintenance. The public deserves clarity on when repairs will begin, which stretches will be prioritised, and who will be held responsible and accountable for failure. Until then, the state’s roads will continue to mirror a broader developmental dilemma: movement promised, but progress stalled.
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