Guwahati, Nov 26: Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari has directed the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) to proactively tackle all challenges and issues on the National Highways (NHs) of Assam and undertake comprehensive maintenance and restoration of all NHs to make them traffic worthy.
In a letter to the chief minister recently, Gadkari informed Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that 11 contractors have been onboarded to expedite restoration and maintenance work on the 127-km Jorhat-Dibrugarh national highway.
Notably, the chief minister had earlier expressed concerns on the pace of work on the Jorhat-Dibrugarh highway.
“I have had the matter examined and would like to inform you that NHIDCL has been entrusted with the laning of NH-37 (Old)/NH-02 and NH-715 (New) from Numaligarh to Dibrugarh. The stretch from Numaligarh to Jorhat has been completed. Unfortunately, work on the stretch from Jorhat to Dibrugarh is running behind schedule due to several factors, including initial delays related to land acquisition, acute shortage of raw materials, especially silt and sand and non-performance of certain contractors,” the Union minister stated in the letter to Sarma.
“In our meeting dated October 22, it was informed that to facilitate efficient execution, the section from Jorhat to Dibrugarh has been divided into smaller fragments, and work is ongoing with 11 contractors onboarded.” Gadkari stated.
The Jorhat-Dibrugarh highway project encompasses nine vehicular underpasses, six pedestrian underpasses and one flyover, requiring substantial quantities of sand.
“Approximately 12 lakh cubic metres of earth, 11 lakh cubic metres of sand and five lakh metric tons of boulders are needed to complete the project, which remains a challenge at present,” he stated.
“I would assure you that my Ministry will effectively implement all requisite measures for timely completion of the projects,” he stated.