Centre to spend Rs 3,100 cr on road construction in NE

The Centre will spend Rs 3,100 crore under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARPD) Phase A, for road construction across the eight North Eastern states, including Sikkim, in this fiscal.  However, the slow implementation of road projects in the region has become a matter of concern for the Centre.

The projects include four-laning of National Highway (NH) 37 from Numaligarh to Dibrugarh in Assam, 4-lane connectivity to Itanagar, capital of Arunachal Pradesh from Nagaon in Assam, extension of Maram-Perem road in Manipur up to Dimapur in Nagaland,  construction of 100 km new 2-lane highway in Mizoram to provide connectivity to under-construction Kaladan project, developing 130 km stretch of Agartala-Sabroom section of NH 44 to 2-lane standard, implementation of Shillong-Nongstoin-Tura road project in Meghalaya and construction of an additional highway to connect Gangtok, capital of Sikkim.

"We have money to construct roads in North Eastern region. But most of the projects are stuck in the pre-implementation stage and suffer from slow pace of implementation in the region," said Vijay Chhibber, secretary of Union road transport and highways ministry.

He further rued that the pace of implementation of road projects in the region takes twice the time in comparison to the national average time. Chhibber said under SARDP-Phase A, the Centre would spend nearly 33,000 crore, which also include the Arunachal Package (construction of 2,400 km long tran-Arunachal highway) for construction of roads across North-East.

The Union road transport and highways ministry has also decided to carry out a feasibility study for the important newly declared NH 127B, connecting Srirampur (on NH 31C) to Phulbari via Dhubri, including construction of a bridge over river Brahmaputra. Besides improving the connectivity for Assam, this road project would also provide alternative shorter connectivity between Nongstoin in Meghalaya with West Bengal. The ministry has also technically vetted the proposal of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) ministry for construction of a new bridge across river Barak to connect Silchar town, in south Assam, as an alternative to the existing Sadarghat bridge.

The ministry has decided to carry out a feasibility study for construction of Imphal by-bass in Manipur. It has also decided to conduct a feasibility study for an alternative highway between Chumukedima, near Dimapur in Nagaland and Maram in Manipur on NH39 to avoid "sinking zones" in Nagaland and Manipur on NH39 so as to tackle perennial problem of frequent traffic disruptions. The Union ministry will also take up construction of a new bridge at Dawki in Meghalaya which has been over-delayed. The proposed alternative highway to Gangtok would be routed via Bagrakot-Nimbong-Lolegaon-Algarah-Rhenok-Pakyong-Ranipul.The proposed highway will provide connectivity to Pakyong airport, presently under construction. Chhibber said alignment for this new highway had been approved by the ministry and the project report was being prepared.