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Centre reviews NE highway works

The ministry of shipping, road transport & highways is satisfied with the progress of execution of National Highway Works and also the works relating to improvement of other roads approved by the Centre.

According to information, a meeting of the ministry hold a meeting in Guwaahti recently to review the progress. Chaired by the secretary (road transport & highways) Brahm Dutt and the meeting was attended by the commissioners and secretaries of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The Chief Engineers of the PWDs of the states and officials from the Border Roads organization (BRO) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) also attended the meeting.

Mr Dutt discussed the issues, which have adversely affected progress of East West corridor in Assam like non-completion of land acquisition, diversion of forestland, shifting of telephone and electricity lines and security threat to workers and engineers.

Assam additional chief secretary assured Mr Dutt that the possession of the balance 43% land would be given to the NHAI within a fortnight.

It was decided that the State government would direct the ground level officers of various departments to complete the works concerning their respective areas like shifting of utilities etc on war-footing and in the meanwhile, NHAI would indicate priority of the areas where it needs to start work immediately.

Mr Brahm Dutt also directed the NHAI officials to ensure that the contractors speed up the construction work the ground as the working season is going to start now and also to ensure that the project is completed by April 2010 as targeted.

The Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP-NE) for the North Eastern States, especially the construction of Phase ‘A’ of the programme and preparation of Detailed Project Reports for the roads included in Phase ‘B’ was also reviewed comprehensively at the meeting.

The issues of coordination between BRO and the states of Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura were resolved after deliberations.

It was also decided that the State level monitoring committee headed by the Chief Secretary would be set up in all the states to monitor the programme on monthly basis.

Mr Dutt pointed out that the States have not been able to make use of the sanctioned funds for maintenance of the National Highways.

The Chief Engineers and Commissioners of the States and also the officials of the border road organization assured him that the entire fund allocated for improvement and repair of national highways would be utilized satisfactorily with the onset of working season.

The Secretary also laid emphasis on construction of quality roads and directed that proper system and procedure should be evolved to ensure that all the roads are constructed to international standards as government has approved projects with high per km cost of Rs. two crore and above under SARDP-NE, informs a government statement.

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