PM to review progress of infra projs in North East on July 17

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a meeting on Wednesday that would emphasise upon the need to expedite infrastructure projects in the North East region comprising 7 states.

"PM will chair a meet on July 17 to review the progress of infrastructure projects in the North Eastern Region," Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chibber told reporters.

Special emphasis will be laid on expediting the pace of infrastructure projects in the region including the progress of Road Ministry's Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North East (SARDP-NE) project, Chibber said.

Only 892 km of roads have been constructed during the last six years under SARDP-NE against the target of 1,283 kms.

The slow progress of works under this programme has been mainly due to the delay in land acquisition, shifting of utilities and forest clearances by various state government departments.

The Prime Minister is likely to review and resolve the issues of implementation of the projects.

Last month, while reviewing the progress of various infrastructure sector projects and setting up targets for the current fiscal, Singh had laid emphasis on development of the North Eastern region.

He had emphasised that the slowdown in award of road projects should get reversed in view of the large number of relaxations that have already been provided to PPP road projects.

The meeting assumes significance as the progress of projects in the region has been sluggish.

The Ministry has taken up the SARDP-NE involving widening of 10,141 km of National Highways and other roads in three phases ensuring connectivity of 88 district headquarters in the North Eastern Region to the National Highways.