Nitin Gadkari approves ₹68,000 cr worth of road projects in North East

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has approved a couple of new road projects in four Northeastern states. These projects are valued at ₹68,000 crore and aim to make international standard surface connectivity in these states. Separately, these projects are worth ₹50,000 crore for Assam, ₹9,000 crore for Meghalaya, ₹5,000 crore for Nagaland and ₹4,000 crore for Sikkim.

Through these projects, the government aims to build international standard roads in the Northeast by 2024. The major projects in Assam include an elevated 38-kilometre-long corridor in Kaziranga National Park for ₹6,000 crore. Another is a ring road in Guwahati worth ₹4,500 crore, a five ropeways for ₹2,100 crore and several highway flyovers as well as bridges over the Brahmaputra river.

A total of 700-km of road network will be developed in Assam. Out of them, 20 projects worth ₹14,000 crore are at the bidding stage and ₹25,000 crore worth of projects are at DPR (detailed project report) stage, the minister said. Gadkari also said that the government will complete ₹2 lakh crore worth of road projects in Assam by 2024.

In Guwahati, as part of the ring road project, the government will build a big bridge on the Brahmaputra river, connecting Narengi and Kuruwa for ₹1,800 crore. "If everything goes well, I'll try to start this ring road project within the next 2-3 months," Gadkari added.

Apart from all this, the projects will also involve several works to widen the existing roads of the East-West Corridor at several places in Assam and other neighboring states.

Gadkari also approved a project to connect Numaligarh on Brahmaputra's southern bank with Gohpur on the northern side in central Assam. This project was approved on the request of the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.