Work on Potin to Panging stretch of TAH delayed due to

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Thursday said work on the Potin to Panging stretch of the ambitious Trans Arunachal Highway (TAH) project is delayed due to compensation issue.

The 407-km Potin-Pangin stretch of the TAH which is mired in controversy is considered as the lifeline for six districts of the state.

Replying to a question by BJP member Lokam Tassar in the Assembly, the chief minister said the state government had already constituted a fact-finding committee to go into the details of the "compensation scam".

He said the road project has been divided into nine packages and tenders have already been called.

Khandu said contract works for package 1, 2 and 7 have already been awarded while for package 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, the evaluation process is going on.

The chief minister replying to another supplementary from BJP member Nyato Rigia assured to constitute a committee to monitor the execution of works of the road project.

"The state government is very serious and will start work on the project soon," the chief minister added.

The tender process for this stretch of the TAH was started way back in 2012. The project ran into rough weather because of inflated compensation amount on land acquisition, leading to arrest of several people, including then Lower Subansiri Deputy Commissioner Kemo Lollen.

PPHL, a Hyderabad-based construction company, left the project in 2018 citing numerous hurdles, including the inability of the state government to hand over land on time.

After the project was terminated in 2018, it was decided that it would be done in nine packages on the same stretch. The DPR was submitted to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH).

The Trans-Arunachal Highway covers 1,559 km and extends from Tawang in western part to Kanubari in the eastern side of the state.