Centre gives nod to 6,418 km of road construction in Arunachal

ITANAGAR: The Union Road Transport and Highways (RTH) Ministry has approved road construction of 6,418 km under Special Accelerated Road Development Project-North East for implementation of Phase A and the Arunachal Pradesh package of roads and highways.

"Of the 10,141 km stretch of road included under the ministry's SARDP-NE, 6418 km have been approved by the Centre for implementation under Phase A and the Arunachal Pradesh package of roads and highways, while the remaining 3,723 km have been approved for preparation of detailed project report under Phase B of the programme," Union Minister of State for RTH Sarvey Sathyanarayana said in reply to a query by Lok Sabha member Takam Sanjoy, official sources said here today. The minister informed that Phase A and the Arunachal package were targeted for completion by March 2017.

While conceding that there had been delays in completion of works in all north-eastern states due to delay in land acquisition, environment and forest clearance, and in some cases due to poor mobilization by the contractors, the minister said non-performing contractors have been debarred from participating in future work.

"The ministry has posted one additional director general for NE region at Guwahati, who will be assisted by three chief engineers, posted at Guwahati, Agartala and Itanagar, to expedite the pre-construction activities," he added.