Shame that road not open for lack of minister

The 1.3-km road overbridge connects Naigaon East and West. Pics/Hanif Patel

A road overbridge, a vital connector between Naigaon East and West in the Vasai belt, was finally completed 18 days ago, after a delay of eight years, but the public cannot use the bridge. The bridge will alleviate the woes of locals and fisherfolk, saving time up to three hours.

The bridge will be opened after a suitable person, i.e. a minister, is named who will have to do the inauguration. The wait is for that. Besides, in a report in this paper, locals have been cited saying that different political parties have also stated that they want the bridge named after a particular person from their party. Residents have suggested an apolitical, simple name like Naigaon East-West bridge.

We see these problems come to the fore again, and instead of resolution they continue to fester bringing misery and frustration to people.

Today, it is this bridge. Earlier, it was toilet blocks in the city that were not opened as a specific minister was not available to inaugurate them.

At that time, this paper had highlighted the need of throwing open finished infrastructure to benefit citizens. Keeping it closed for days just because Mr or Ms Suitable is not available to cut a ribbon to ingratiating applause all around is extremely irksome, if not downright criminal.

We also had a report where a garden was closed for days together for similar reasons. This, even though the city yearns for green spaces and amenities like public toilets.

Now, we see a disappointingly familiar pattern with this bridge. Authorities concerned need to be pragmatic rather than political and open this to the public. Fighting about names for infra is another subject tackled by this newspaper. This is shameful and immature to say the least. Both these issues show us that our priorities lie in frivolous, ego-pandering rather than simply looking at these as projects for the people.