THEY say, MIHAN is Nagpur city’s special mega project. And there can never be a bigger lie than this. For, if MIHAN were to be project of such importance, then the administration -- whichever agency -- would not treated it with such an indifference, such a disdain. But those who do all tom-tomming about MIHAN are just fake in their commitment, to say the least. Pay a visit to MIHAN, and you would realise the truth in this charge. You will run into rough, nay terrible, roads. You will run also into a security that appears almost unnecessary. You will see a lot of civic mismanagement in MIHAN. Yet, it is a special project -- a favourite of many public leaders who had acted as self-appointed public relations officers of the project that was about to be launched decades ago. All those people made great promises in public gatherings where they showed sophisticated pictures of the project that was yet to start taking shape. They promised that half a million jobs would be created in the new project. And these self-styled PROs roamed around Vidarbha addressing public gatherings -- making tall promises. .

 

Most of those promises have not come true even twenty-plus years of the project. A few industrial entities have certainly come up there. But their collective manpower requirement is terribly short of the levels promised by those fake PROs. If a project does not deliver in two decades, then can it be called a successful project? But the loosefooter wants to raise another issue as well -- of civic management of MIHAN as a whole. A few prestigious industries have certainly come up there. Some very prestigious Government projects also have come up in MIHAN. But all these public and private projects appear more like islands of excellence -- which is not visible outside their premises. The roads are terrible. Sidewalks are full of filth. And what to make things look all the more terrible, the management of MIHAN -- whichever agency that may be -- has not bothered to maintain well the only approach from the Wardha Road (highway) the fly-over.

 

Anybody who is accessing the fly-over for the first time will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never know where to exit the Wardha Road and start climbing the approach to the fly-over. There is no sign of any kind to suggest that the people desirous to go to MIHAN should exit the highway at that particular point. And when darkness falls post-evening, things get all the more terrible. For, there is no street-light that would light up the cut in the side parapet at which the fly-over can be accessed. This is how the administration -- whichever the agency -- treats the city’s favourite, special and mega project. All fake. All a huge nonsense. Is the loosefooter wrong in thinking thus? n