Kurseong: How roads make a difference

KURSEONG, 15 FEB: Roads are institutions of development, for where there are great roads, changes for greater development improve. Such is the case today in some parts of Darjeeling Hills.

Before 2007, Rohini was just a small remote village in the map of the district on the outskirts of Kurseong town, surrounded by large swathes of tea gardens, forests and Army land. Rohini was considered, at that point of time, one of the remotest regions in the district where farming was the main occupation of the residents. In fact, whenever a villager stepped into Kurseong town they would be asked if they were from Rohini.

Post 2007, due to the initiative taken by the then DGHC care-taker Subash Ghisingh to build a road through the region that would connect Kurseong to Siliguri and that, too, in less time, the very face of Rohini changed.

The road, completed and inaugurated in July 2007, was built at a total cost of Rs 10.69 crore. The new road brought fast development to Rohini never seen before and soon the area became a hive throbbing with tourists as tourism infrastructure also came up. Hotels and private residents mushroomed, causing the price of land to spiral in the once remote region.

But later, with the passage of time and with the advent of new political turmoil in the Hills, the road gradually deteriorated.

With a new dispensation, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) finally installed in the Hills in 2011, its Chief Executive Bimal Gurung took over the matter of re-designing the road again to give it a fresh look in 2012. Nine months later, after an expenditure of more than 15 crores the road was again fit for heavy traffic and, in its new avatar, has now made Rohini more resplendent, following which everybody wishes to build their residences and hotels there. The price of land has, in the meantime, become exorbitant. Today the 17 km Rohini Road is the most popular route to Siliguri in the Hills and appreciated by almost everyone.

On the other hand, the once thriving regions of Mahanadi and Tindharia in Kurseong Sub-division connected by the British-era road, the National Highway 55 with Siliguri, has now become isolated and turned remote due to the near collapse of the main arterial road.

The NH-55 was the heart-line of Darjeeling Hills because of which all the small townships lying along its parameters flourished in trade and commerce. But with its collapse all modes of transportation suffered including the toy train services, resulting in the slow drying up of its revenues.

Since 16 June 2010 the NH-55 near 14 Mile in Ghayabari has been hit by major landslides occurring in consecutive monsoons, and with reconstruction works either not started or still to be completed, the areas have been totally cut off and hence isolated from the rest of the hills. The once flourishing region has now lost its colour and has slowly started to fade into oblivion.

Good roads are indeed the umbilical cord to which development is attached and Rohini and the now-dead townships are prime examples.  

SNS