New Delhi: Providing a major thrust to road connectivity between the Northeastern states and neighbouring countries, the centre has approved the Mawngap-Ranikor road passing through West and South Khasi Hills linking Bangladesh as a national highway.
“We are taking initiative for preparation of the DPR,” Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari intimated Lok Sabha member from Shillong Vincent H Pala here on Wednesday. Pala along with Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Rowell Lyngdoh had met the Union Minister on this issue earlier.
Pala had submitted a detailed proposal for a national highway from Mawngap via Mawkyrwat and
Ranikor, on the border with Bangladesh (Sylhet & Mymensing) where there is already a custom station at Borsora. The road, which is in existence, has to be widened and restructured so that, the around 110-km stretch, is declared a national highway and a road of economic and strategic importance for serving both economic interests of the region and for efficiently securing the territorial integrity of India, Pala had said in the letter.
A double-lane road from Garo Hills through Maheshkhola already joins Ranikor to connect to the West and South West Khasi Hills districts. The proposed widening and declaration of the road segment as national highway will herald an economic boom for the State and the region, Pala had argued.
Air and rail connectivity into and out of Meghalaya is sporadic for a long time and is not at all commensurate to the needs of the fast paced development of the State and the region as a whole, especially in the newly envisioned ‘Act East’ economic framework.
The poor air and rail connectivity within Meghalaya is also due to terrain-specific reasons thereby leaving the State entirely dependent upon a workable road network as the sole alternative for economics, commerce and communications.
The land is bestowed with a wide range of mineral resources, forest products, medicinal plants, horticulture and agriculture activities, and major mines like coal, limestone and uranium, the Shillong MP had stated.
A new road network covering the West and South West Khasi Hills will not only interlink potential economic areas within the State but will also connect to the neighbouring Bangladesh which is an avid consumer of Indian resources across the border, he had added.
