East-West Corridor stretch inaugurated

Sorbhog, Apr 12 (UNI) One of the first stretches of East-West corridors between Srirampur and Pathsala was today opened for vehicles near Sorbhog, making a significant beginning of this huge and ambitious project.

About five kms of continuous stretch of concrete road of National Highway-31 was inaugurated under the project. The new road is a concrete one, unlike the existing black topped road.

The 5-km-stretch near Sorbhog has seven slab culvert and one minor bridge. The carriageway consists of 8.75 m wide cement concrete pavement and 1 m soft shoulder.

The road was opened by project Director Raj Chakrabarty, who is the PD of the NHAI, Bongaigaon. Another stretch of 4.5 km of NH-31 between Rongiya and Nalbari has also been opened for traffic.

This is the beginning of the four laning of the East-West Corridor project, whose length in Assam is about 700 km. The entire stretch has been looked after by five NHAI offices, located at Bongaigaon, Guwahati, Nagaon, Lumding and Silchar.

The construction of the stretch was done by M/S Punj Lloyd under the supervision of the M/s BCEOM, a French company. The construction of four laning NH in Assam is going on in full swing.

It has been informed that four-laning in the Barpeta, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar districts under the Bongaogain NHAI office are progressing despite facing serious problem of land acquisition, utility shifting with the support and cooperation of Assam Government. The work is expected to be completed by 2009.

UNI MT LL DB1828