New Delhi: A Parliamentary committee on Home Affairs has suggested the Central government to form an empowered team of senior officers from the Ministries of DoNER and Road Transport and Highways to visit several ongoing major road projects in Northeast and ensure its early completion.
The Committee notes that the progress of road construction projects have been affected by serious adversities like hilly terrain, inclement weather conditions and medical emergencies like Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Committee recommends that the Ministry must conduct special drives for completion of these projects as they have been initiated way back in 2013. The Committee further recommends that the DoNER Ministry may set up an accountability mechanism for poor and non-performance and apprise the Committee about the action taken in this regard.
In its reply, the DoNER ministry said that it is coordinating with central ministries and departments on the development of infrastructure in order to improve connectivity in the North Eastern Region.
Some of the major ongoing infrastructure projects undertaken by the central government in Northeast including capital road connectivity, capital rail connectivity, air connectivity, power, telecom, petroleum and natural gas etc., are reviewed and monitored by the Ministry of DoNER.
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There are five major capital road connectivity projects in NER implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways such as Kohima (Nagaland)-4 Laning of Dimapur- Kohima Road (4 Packages) with a total length of 62.9Km. The Ministry is also implementing capital road connectivity to Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh)-4 laning Nagaon bypass to Holongi, with a total length of 167 Km.
There is an ongoing capital road connectivity to Gangtok (Sikkim) - alternate two lane highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717A) with a length 152 Km. In Mizoram there are 2-laning of Aizawl – Tuipang NH-54, with a total length-351 Kms. (8 packages). And 4-laning of Imphal – Moreh section of NH-39 (Manipur) from km 330.0 to km 350.0 and 2-laning from Km 350.0 to Km 425.41.
“A review meeting chaired by the Principal Advisor to the Prime Minister was held in September, 2020 in which all the major infrastructure projects in NER including the five major capital road connectivity projects were reviewed. Accordingly, a monthly status update of the major infrastructure projects in NER implemented by the central ministries concerned including Ministry of Road Transport and Highways are sent to PMO on a regular basis,” the DoNER Ministry informed the Parliamentary committee.
Besides, the officers of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways also regularly inspect sites in the NER States at Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur for timely completion of projects in the North Eastern Region.
“Also, Executive Directors of National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) also monitor the progress & quality of works being executed by NHIDCL in the respective North Eastern Region (NER) states,” the DoNER Ministry informed.
