Agartala: Tripura govt expressed serious resentment over the role of Ministry of Road Transports and Highways (MRTH) in regard to development of national highway 44 and upgradation of NH 44 A besides, state highways in Northeast.
State Public Works Department (PWD) minister Badal Choudhury said media here on Sunday that MRTH minister Oscar Fernandez had held meeting with North-eastern states on August 2 at Guwahati but could not make any specific assurance for better surface connectivity.
“Not only me Chief Ministers of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh were also critical to central govt’s attitude towards development of road and highways of the region and it appears all the states except Assam is having very poor roads,” Choudhury pointed out.
He also stated as per central govt policy, all the state capitals were supposed to be connected by four-lane roads, but still it was a dream for the region.
Because the eight states of the region together counted only 9613 kilometres national highway and though Tripura is second largest state in the region in terms of population, in road network it is second smallest, as Tripura shares only 400 kilometres national highway.
While all other states and regions of the country had been development fast, north-eastern states particularly Tripura was lagging behind due to poor road connectivity and apathetic attitude of Centre towards the north-eastern states and Tripura in particular, Choudhury lamented. He, however, pointed out that centre had decided to undertake all works for improvement, development, and maintenance of roads and bridges on National Highway stretches passing through the State though Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode for faster rollout of the projects and their time-bound completion but it had also not found prospective in Tripura. (UNI)