Massive infusion of funds for developing 6418 km of highways in Northeast India

GUWAHATI: Northeast India will witness massive investment in highways under the special accelerated road development programme (SARDP-North East) and Prime ministers package for Arunachal Pradesh.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways will pump in Rs Rs 33, 688 Crore for construction of 6418km of roads during the 12th plan period.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Oscar Fernandes who was in Guwahati on Friday reviewed the progress of National Highway works.

Fernandes said that a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was held on July 18 last to review the status of development projects in the region and discussed steps to accelerate the same.

The ministry has decided to carry out a feasibility study for the newly declared National Highway NH-127 B connecting Srirampur (on NH-31 C) to Phulbari via Dhubri including construction of a bridge over river Brahmaputra. Besides improving the connectivity for Assam, this would also provide an alternative shorter connectivity between Nongstoin in Meghalaya with West Bengal and will provide greater access to Assam and Meghalaya.

The ministry has technically vetted the proposal of the Ministry of DONER for construction of a new bridge across river Barak to connect Silchar town as an alternative to the existing Sadarghat Bridge and widen the NH-37 between Numaligarh — Jorhat — Demow — Dibrugarh to 4-lane standards on BOT ( Annuity) basis.

Secretary to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Vijay Chibber also announced that from now onwards all works by Public Works Department and Border Border Roads Organisation (BRO)will be implemented under EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) mode instead of the conventional item rate contract system for effective implementation of projects.