As we drove from Guwahati to Shillong, the road started to turn, and turn again and turn again. The winding mountainous road kept climbing up. The rain was watching us travel and the fog and mist was making it difficult to watch the natural beauty outside. By the time we reached Shillong, it was cold, misty, rainy and dark – pitch dark. I thought, now would be the time to eat some dinner, and go to sleep. However, the tour manager said, after check-in, come down for a hot cup of tea, and some meet and greet.
Tea? At this hour? I had clearly lost track of time through the winding roads and steep valleys. It was only 5:20 PM IST!
An equal but opposite shock awaited in the morning. As I lay awake in the bed, the small sliver in the curtain suggested something bright outside. Well rested, as I stretched and walked towards the window to draw the curtains aside, I was shocked to see bright sunlight piercing through. And it was only 6:25 AM.
The daylight hours had shifted as we travelled eastwards. The Indian Standard Time did not keep up.
An eastern quip – give us a separate time zone
Many people – scholars, leaders, industrialists etc. from the Northeastern region have demanded a separate time zone for years together. However, it has not materialized into anything concrete. Energy saving, health and well-being of people and optimum utilization of resources are primary concerns. I am sure many back-of-the-envelope and official calculations must have shown the benefits of the two different time zones. However, it has fallen on deaf ears so far. Assam follows the concept of ‘Chai Bagan time’, but that is a tweak only to the start and end of working hours. It does not affect the time zone setting itself. Therefore, I will not pontificate the benefits. Instead, I will just put forward a solution/suggestion that I think will benefit our country.
Divide that Country – into time zones!
Let’s create a Northeast Indian Time Zone, which is aligned to UTC+6:30, which is a full hour ahead of the current IST. One look at the time zone map of current UTC+6:30 will easily convince you that this aligns better with the geography. Andaman and Nicobar Islands can also use this time zone.
Let’s continue to use UTC+5:30, which is the Indian Standard Time, for rest of the country.
However, I can think of another radical alternative. Align the UTC+5:30 only with the remaining northern, eastern and central Indian states. UP, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, NCR, Punjab, Haryana, J&K, Ladakh, HP can use this time zone.
And let’s create another time zone, which is aligned to UTC+5:00. This will be used by the remaining western and southern states of India.
If you study the longitudes carefully:
1. UTC+6:30 would roughly correspond to 104 degrees East. This passes through the middle of the Northeastern region.
2. UTC+5:30, which corresponds to 82.5 degrees East, passes through major central Indian states, but is aligned more eastern than the western half of the country. And interestingly, it does not pass through any of the south Indian states.
3. UTC+5:00, which corresponds to 75 degrees East, passes through the middle of the western region.
4. I am combining the four major south Indian states and UTs with the UTC+5:00 because they are closer to the equator, and length of the day will not change too much with seasonal variations. Even if this is misalignment, it would adjust itself.
Challenges in implementation?
As far as I can see, only political will. While researching on this topic, I came across a poignant observation – this does not need anyone to spend crores of Rupees, hence the political class has no interest in taking this forward.
Many countries operate with multiple time zones. Broadcasters, Telecom Service Providers, Airlines, Train services are used to dealing with this. Public education campaigns will also help. It may create confusion, but that is temporary. If we could adopt a metric system, change our coinage and in recent times, execute demonetization, this task is not complex at all. Is there any political will to do this?
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