GUWAHATI Jan 27: Two express corridors – one from Guwahati to Dibrugarh and the other from Guwahati to Siliguri – are on the anvil. Once operational, duration of road journeys from Assam’s capital city to both Upper Assam and Bengal border would reduce considerably and boost connectivity.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday outlined plans to build express corridors between Dibrugarh and Guwahati, and between Guwahati and Siliguri.
Addressing the 77th Republic Day programme after unfurling the Tricolour at Khanikar Playground in Dibrugarh, Sarma said that once the Dibrugarh Guwahati express corridor becomes operational, travel time between the two cities will reduce drastically.
He said that Assam as a leading state that envisions a medical college, university, and engineering college in every district, continues a sustained effort to protect its identity while advancing development and fulfilling the aspirations of the youth.
Referring to the election promise of providing one lakh government jobs, he said the state has exceeded this commitment and has recruited more than 1.56 lakh young men and women through a fully clean and transparent process. He added that several thousand more appointments will be made by February this year.
The chief minister further informed that Union home minister Amit Shah would lay the foundation stone for the state’s second Legislative Assembly complex, to be built at a cost of about Rs 300 crore. “This step will give new momentum to Upper Assam, he said.
Sarma also said that the government has requested the Chief Justice of India to establish a circuit bench of the Gauhati High Court in Dibrugarh.
“Assam’s administrative and communication framework took shape in Dibrugarh. The state’s industrial development also began there, which strongly influenced Assam’s overall growth. However, during the rule of previous Congress governments, neglect, apathy, and mis-governance stalled industrial growth and created serious economic problems,” he said.
Citing Reserve Bank of India data, the chief minister said that over the past five years Assam has emerged as the fastest growing state economy in the country.
‘Gross State Domestic Product has also risen rapidly, and in less than a decade the size of the state’s economy has become nearly triple,” he said.
He also said that in February last year, the Advantage Assam 2.0 infrastructure and investment summit secured investment commitments of more than Rs 5 lakh crore, with projects worth nearly Rs 3 lakh crore already moving toward implementation.
As a representative of Assam, Sarma had attended the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland recently. During the meeting, Assam received new investment commitments worth about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
