Mega project on East-West corridor begins

Aizawl, Jun 11: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has begun construction of 3000 km East-West corriodor, billed as one of the biggest project of the country involving the North-Eastern region here.

The proposed NHAI project, connecting Silchar (Asom-Mizoram border) in the region by a four-lane highway, promises to change the concept of road communication as conceived in the area, official sources stated today.

At present, small and dusty roads make up most of the road networks in the North Eestern region.

More than 5,000 engineers and suppliers have assembled from across the country for the project.

Apart from this, the Shipping and Surface Transport Ministry had also launched a special accelerated road development programme to connect all the state capitals in the region through four-lane national highway in phased manner.

The phase-a of the road development programme, which had been approved at an estimated cost of more than Rs 4000 crore, was aimed at expanding national highways especially in the north-eastern region, measuring about 1246 km, to four-lane routes.

About 85 district headquarters in the region will be benefited through this improved and upgraded national highways, the official sources said adding phase-b of the programme will include 83 roads with a total length of more than 6,000 km.

The detailed project report was under preparation to which the Centre had accorded top priority.

UNI