Making up for the lost ground, the Centre today said it will start Rs. 20,000-crore road projects, besides developing inland waterways, in the North- East by the end of this year to improve infrastructure in the region.
“By the end of December this year, we will award road projects worth Rs 20,000 crore in the North-East. These will be spread across the region for improving the infrastructure, which will help the economy of the North-East,” Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari said at a press conference here.
The projects will have a long gestation period and will be implemented by public sector undertakings, besides private entities, in the public-private partnership mode, he added.
“Of these, around Rs. 6,000-crore projects will be in Arunachal Pradesh while projects worth of Rs. 8,000 crore will be developed in Assam. The remaining will be for other parts of the region,” Gadkari said.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Gadkari had announced Rs. 5,130 crore worth road projects for Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, to improve their road network.
The new roads were important for the economic growth of the north east, he said, adding that the 102-km Jowai-Ratacherra road in Meghalaya would be built at an estimated cost of Rs. 630 crore. “The Centre has allocated Rs. 5,130 crore for road projects for Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh,” Mr. Gadkari said.
The Jowai-Ratacherra road would be the lifeline for the eastern Meghalaya district of East Jaintia Hills, he said, adding “I assure you that we will start this project within three months.” The Centre, Mr. Gadkari said, had sanctioned three projects in Nagaland. The detailed project reports have been prepared and work on them would start in three to four months.
The projects are four-laning of 48-km Dimapur-Kohima road, the 35-km-long four-lane Dimapur by-pass and the 17-km-long Kohima by-pass, he said.
Mr. Gadkari said the cost for construction of the 100-km road in Nagaland is estimated to be Rs. 2,000 crore. Referring to Arunachal Pradesh, he said a new road project costing Rs. 2,500 crore is expected to start within two months.
On the East-West corridor in Assam, the Union Minister said the project which is important for Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland is expected to be completed by December 2015. “About 570-km road length has been completed under various packages...The remaining length of 69-km is likely to be completed by December 2015,” he said, adding that some packages from Jatinga and ahead in Assam were held up due to land acquisition and landslide issues.
