NE state capitals to be connected with 4-lane National Highways

New Delhi, Sept 28 (UNI) Recognising the need to connect capitals of all the North-Eastern states with National Highways, the government today said 1,246 kms of various NHs had been identified for 4-laning to connect Agartala, Aizawl, Imphal and Itanagar, under the NHDP Phase III-B.

The four-lane connectivity between Kohima and Shillong and improvement of Sevoke-Gangtok National Highway to 2-lane with paved shoulders is proposed under Phase 'A' of the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP-NE), while Guwahati is to be connected through the 4-lane East-West Corridor.

This was announced by Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister T R Baalu at a meeting of the members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, attached to his Ministry here today.

Mr Baalu said work on the ambitious road development programmes in the North-Eastern region, covering 7,616 kms of roads of various categories, under the SARDP-NE, had begun in right earnest.

The minister informed that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the Assam Public Works Department would start work during the current year on Phase 'A' of the programme, covering 1,310 km of roads, at an estimated expenditure of Rs.4,618 crore.

''The programme has already been approved by the government for implementation,'' he said, adding that under Phase 'B' of the programme, 6,306 km of roads had been approved for preparation of the Detailed Project Reports.

Mr Baalu also informed that the 678-km length of the 4-lane North-East Corridor under NHDP Phase-II, falls in Assam and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already started work on it.

Contracts for 629-km length have been awarded at a project cost of Rs 5,218 crore.

He expressed satisfaction over the fact that out of a total length of 6,880 km of National Highways in the north-eastern region, 5,170 km had been covered for improvement under various programmes launched by the Central government.

Referring to various difficulties in the implementation of these programmes, he said ''inadequately developed local contracting industry and lack of equipment'' were major impediments.

''Also, there are problems in land acquisition and availability of materials,'' he said, adding that the state governments had imposed higher royalty charges on mining of the stone aggregates and sand. ''Lack of quarries in the region have resulted in higher transportation cost.'' MORE UNI SKS RA VV1715