ITANAGAR, Jan 16 - Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday inaugurated four highway projects worth Rs 935 crore in Arunachal Pradesh that includes the State�s first four-lane highway and three two-lane highways.
The 20 km four-lane highway connecting Itanagar and Holongi, which is part of NH-52A constructed at an amount of Rs 476 crore under Phase-A of SARDP-NE, will serve as an important link with Guwahati.
Inaugurating the road projects, the Union Minister announced a slew of road projects besides declaring four State highways namely, Akajan-Likabali-Bame (119 km), Margherita-Changlang (44 km), Paka Gongo-Gogamukh along the left bank of river Subansiri (125 km) and Tezu to Chapakhowa via Sunpura (20 Km) as National Highways.
Gadkari assured that all the road projects in the State worth Rs 50,000 crore will be completed before the completion of the five-year term of the government at the Centre. Further, he promised to sanction another Rs 50,000 crore for new proposed projects.
The Union Minister also announced that work for 31.5 km four-lane highway from Itanagar to Banderdewa under NH-415 will start by March with Rs 284 crore sanctioned for the initial 12 km from Itanagar to Naharlagun. The sanction for balance length including viaduct at Karsingsa will be considered in financial year 2017-18 and work will be started in October next, he informed.
Promising to develop more two-lane highways in the State, the Union Minister estimated that overall investment in the State in next 2-3 years would be around Rs 20,800 crore on development of National Highways covering 2,223 km.
On projects requested by State Government, which includes the 431 km East-West Industrial Corridor Highway along the foothills and 1,841 km Frontier Highway that will run near India-China border, the Union Minister assured that despite the huge financial liability on ongoing SARDP-NE projects, he will see that these projects are cleared by the Centre.
