Arunachal asks for approving Tawang-Vijayanagar Road

Arunachal Pradesh has urged the Centre to approve the proposed 2,000-km road from Tawang to Vijaynagar to provide connectivity to the border areas along the MacMohan line by declaring it as National Highway.

State PWD Minister Gojen Gadi made the plea during a meeting with Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju at New Delhi yesterday, an official release said here today. Pointing out that a concept paper with provision for consultancy services to cost Rs 63 crore has already been submitted to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH), Gadi requested immediate sanction besides fund provision for preparing the DPR on priority.

Gadi also made similar request to declare the proposed 431-km East-West Industrial Corridor Highway along the foothill areas from Bhairabkund to Rukshin as NH with a fund provision of Rs 8.50 crore for consultancy services. Both the roads are pet projects of Rijiju, which he had announced here in July 2014.

Gadi also reiterated his request for sanctioning eight un-awarded road projects of the total 22 to the state PWD as the physical progress of 14 ongoing schemes was about 71 per cent with a target to complete within a year.

If the eight projects are awarded to the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDC) Ltd, the two divisions created by the PWD for speedy execution of 14 projects would be left with no work and create imbalance in placement of engineers and staff, he justified in his humble submission, the communique informed.

He urged for release of balance Rs 54.02 crore for 11 ongoing projects within this fiscal for completion of work on time.