SHILLONG: Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday informed that road projects worth around Rupees 1.9 lakh crore are being implemented in the North East.
Addressing a press conference after the two-day review meeting on National Highways of the North East in Shillong, Gadkari said that land acquisition, utility shifting and forest clearance are the major hurdles and urged the state governments of the region to expedite the process by holding regular review meetings with NHIDCL and NHAI. He said that the Ministry was committed and ready for early completion of the projects and for that to happen the state governments had to take off those problems.
The cost of road projects completed so far under NHIDCL is Rs 1,30,988 crore, under PWD is Rs 17,257 crore and under NHAI is Rs 7,000 crore.
In Assam, NHAI is carrying out works in four projects (total length – 96 Km) costing Rs 821 Crore. In Meghalaya, NHAI is constructing- 62 km road costing Rs 536 crore. This project will be completed by October, 2018.
Talking about the quality, Gadkari cautioned that the ministry would take stringent action if any compromises were made with the quality of road.
He also informed that the ministry had decided to pull out NHAI from the North East region as they have formed the NHIDCL and the NHAI hands were already full with projects all over the country.
Talking about new innovations and venture, Gadkari said that the government was trying the usage of new fuels like methanol, ethanol and electric. He said that the ministry would sanction a pilot project for the North East and ten buses running on methanol would be introduced in Guwahati.
He also urged the Chief Minister’s of all the North East states to consider the use of electric powered mode of public transportation.
The minister who is also in charge of water resources, shipping and river development said that the government had initiated many a projects across North East, especially in Brahmaputra to develop waterways for connectivity which is cost cutting and time effective. He also dwelt on amphibious planes which can land both on land and water and pointed out lakes like Umiam could be very well used for the purpose.