GUWAHATI, Nov 2 � The State Government has proposed the diversion of the alignment of the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) stretch of the four-lane National Highway (NH)-37 to Dibrugarh through the north bank to ensure safety of the park animals. This is sought to be made possible with the construction of two new bridges over the Brahmaputra at Kaliabhomora and between Gohpur and Numaligarh.
A proposal has also been prepared to construct a wildlife-friendly highway in the Kaziranga National Park stretch. However, construction of an alternative highway, bypassing the National Park on the southern side, has not been found feasible as it would cause damage to the forest and a large portion of the hilly area.
Revealing this, State Chief Secretary Jitesh Khosla said in his compliance affidavit before the National Green Tribunal that the State Government has strongly opposed the idea of widening the NH-37 to a four-lane road in the KNP stretch, keeping in mind the safety of the park animals. The Chief Secretary filed the affidavit in the Green Tribunal in matters related to Application No. 174 of 2013.
The application has been filed by Rohit Choudhury and another applicant against the Union Government and others on the issue of vehicular traffic affecting the park animals in the KNP stretch of the NH-37. Khosla said the State Government has proposed to divert the alignment of the four-lane highway to Dibrugarh through the north bank with the bridges over the Brahmaputra at the aforesaid places.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRT&H) has already accepted the State Government�s proposal in this regard and a detailed project report (DPR) covering the stretch between Nagaon and Gohpur has already been submitted to the MoRT&H for the purpose.
The feasibility study of the Gohpur-Numaligarh bridge is under process, while the alignment plan of the Gohpur-Numaligarh bridge has been
submitted to the KNP
Director for observation and clearance. But this diverted stretch of the NH-37 is not going to serve the localities by this stretch between Jakhalabandha and Bokakhat as bypass, even though all heavy vehicles coming to and from the Upper Assam locations could be diverted through this four-lane stretch after its completion and thus the volume of traffic could be reduced on the KNP part of the NH-37, he said.
However, he maintained that any absolute restriction on the movement of vehicular traffic in this particular stretch of the NH-37 will cripple the supply line to the upper Assam areas as well as Nagaland and the southern part of Arunachal Pradesh, resulting in unimaginable chaos and uncertainty to a large section of people.
Meanwhile, following the October 9, 2013 directive of the Green Tribunal, work to set up hot-mix plants and stone crushers has been retrained in the KNP neighbourhood, said the Chief Secretary.