Govt.initiates mega road development programme in North East

Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Lok Sabha today that his ministry has initiated a mega road development programme in the North East namely called the "Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North East (SARDP-NE)".

As on date, he said that the government has given approval for 2/4 laning of 6418 km of various categories of roads under Phase 'A' and the Arunachal Package of SARDP-NE in entire North-East at an estimated investment of about Rs 33,500 crore.

He further stated that the government has also given approval to preparation of a detailed project report for 3723 km of roads under Phase 'B'.

The minister also informed the Lok Sabha that the approved length of Trans Arunachal Highways under SARDP-NE in the state of Arunachal Pradesh is 1326 km. Out of this, a total of 120 km has been completed so far and 220 km is targeted for completion by March, 2015.

The funds for Trans Arunachal Highways are not made separately and are made under overall allocation for SARDP-NE. An amount of Rs. 3000 crore have been allocated for SARDP-NE and expenditure till October, 2014 is Rs. 782.38 crore.

There are delays in completion of East-West corridor and Saraighat Bridge in Assam due to land acquisition, change in design and slow mobilization of the resources by the agency.

So far, works on 551 km have been completed. The entire project is targeted for completion by June, 2015. To expedite completion of projects with a view to minimize cost over-run and escalation, the projects are being reviewed at various levels at frequent intervals.