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Road development work starts in North-East

Special Correspondent

Implementation of projects would enhance employment potential

NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu on Thursday said that work under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP-NE) in the North-Eastern Region covering 7,616 km of roads of various categories has begun in right earnest.

Addressing Members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here, the Minister said the Border Roads Organisation and the Assam Public Works Department would be starting works during the current year on Phase `A' of the programme covering 1,310 km of roads at an investment of Rs. 4, 618 crore, which has already been approved by the Government for implementation. Under Phase `B' of the programme, 6,306 km of roads have been approved for preparation of the Detailed Project Reports, he added.

Mr. Baalu said the 678-km length of the four-lane North-East Corridor under NHDP Phase-II fell in Assam and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had already started work on it. He said contracts for a 629-km length had been awarded at a project cost of Rs. 5, 218 crore.

The Minister informed the Members that recognising the need to connect Capitals of States of the Region with four-lane National Highways, 1,246 km of various National Highways had been identified for four-laning connecting Agartala, Aizawl, Imphal and Itanagar under the NHDP Phase III-B. Four-lane connectivity to Kohima and Shillong and improvement of the Sevoke-Gangtok National Highway to two-lane with paved shoulders was proposed under Phase `A' of SARDP-NE and Guwahati would get connected through the four-lane East-West Corridor.

He expressed satisfaction that, out of the total 6,880 km length of the National Highways in the NE Region, 5,170 km has been covered for improvement under various specific programmes launched by the Central Government, which is a better scenario than the all-India picture.

Referring to the several difficulties in the implementation of these programmes, he said an inadequately developed local contracting industry and lack of equipment caused delay, and the outside contractors were generally reluctant because of these problems.

There were also difficulties in land acquisition and availability of materials, he said and added that the State Governments had imposed higher royalty charges on mining of the stone aggregates and sand.There was also lack of quarries in the region, leading to higher transportation costs, he added.

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