Apang urges for road connectivity in Arunachal

Itanagar, Feb 9 (UNI) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang has urged the Development of North East Region (DoNER) ministry to take necessary steps for constructing National Highways connecting the district headquarters.

Mr Apang at a sectoral summit of the North Eastern Council (NEC), chaired by DoNER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar in Shillong yesterday urged the minister to review road sector programmes in the region, official sources said here today.

The minister had agreed that the NH 52 would touch Itanagar under East West corridor project, which runs from Gujarat to Asom.

Reiterating his three-tier road project in the state, Mr Apang said the Centre should chalk out plans to construct roads near the international border from West to East connecting all the border outposts and towns and parallel road along the Asom boundary.

The state sharing long international borders of 1680 km is not only acting as a sentinel of the country but would be the corridor for trade and commerce as per the 'Look East Policy' of the Centre, he claimed.

Pointing out the difficulties in providing the ten per cent matching share on centrally sponsored schemes, Mr Apang called upon the DoNER ministry to provide 100 per cent grant for road projects under non-lapsable central pool of resources. Regarding National Highway network in the state, the chief minister said the state has only 419 km road against requirement of estimated 3350 km of briges in NH 52 are yet to be completed including Siang bridge, he added.

While pleading for improvement of roads in all the seven approved tourist circuits and roads to border trade centers in the state, he said Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was overloaded with survey and investigation of roads under SARDP and urged the Centre to hand over the task of strategic road development to state PWD. Requesting the DoNER minister to convince the union rural development ministry to relax Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana guidelines in his state, Mr Apang said it would facilitate all weather connectivity for most villages if not all in Arunachal and other NE states.

He also requested for funding of bridges of more than 25 meters in length including protective structures considering the big rivers in the state, sources added.

UNI