News Detail

• The Centre has given its nod to the upgrade of three state highways into national highways in the Northeast that will shorten tortuous routes and pave the road for development of vast tracts of backward and hilly areas.While the Dhubri-Phulbari national highway will have huge socio-economic implications for Assam and Meghalaya, the Naharkatia-Khonsa highway will impact Arunachal Pradesh, besides Assam.The Lawngtlai-Kaladan Road will help boost the transport network in Mizoram (see chart).

• This project, which will ensure an investment of around Rs 4,600 crore, will give the Northeast an additional 600-km of national highways and better access to the region’s remote areas, those associated with the road sector here said today.“Not to forget the booming trade ties with Myanmar and Bangladesh once it is completed. These highways were critical for development of the region,” a source said.Dispur had been pressing for the Dhubri-Phulbari national highway since 2005 with chief minister Tarun Gogoi, PWD minister Ajanta Neog and PWD commissioner Ajoy Bordoloi consistently pressuring the Centre to get the project cleared.

• Of late, Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal of the AIUDF was also pushing for the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge.The AIUDF today held a news conference to claim how Ajmal had made the “impossible possible”.PWD sources said the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge would serve the twin purpose of providing much-needed connectivity to Tura, the district headquarters of West Garo Hills in Meghalaya, to the rest of the country via Dhubri (Assam) and Siliguri (West Bengal), as well as ensuring a sizeable reduction in road distance.

• A PWD report sent to the Centre first in 2005 and then again in 2009 point out that if the proposed bridge on the newly announced national highway is built, there will be reduction of road length by around 185km from the south bank of the Brahmaputra covering vast underdeveloped areas such as Tura, Williamnagar and Rajabala in Meghalaya and Hatsiaginari, Mancachar, Fakirganj and south Salmara in Assam.

• The shortening of distance between Guwahati and Dhubri by 40km will also benefit those who visit the Northeast.The highways will benefit the economically-backward areas of West Garo Hills and Dhubri, which closed in by the Brahmaputra on one side and Bangladesh on the other.The Naharkatia-Khonsa national highway will be a big boost for the industry — coal, oil and tea — and tourism sectors.The Arunachal Pradesh government had also been pushing for the clearance of the highway and this stretch will be connected with the trans-Arunachal highway one day, a source said.The new highway in Mizoram will aid border trade with Myanmar, besides tourism in the picture-postcard state.

• The Assam PWD department is moving the Prime Minister tomorrow, not only to thank him but also with a plea to include the two national highways (Dhubri and Naharkatia) in the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme-Northeast itself or else construction will not be possible because of “inadequate” allocation of plan funds to the state.

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