AGARTALA, July 23 - Giving a major boost to the Prime Minister�s Look East and Act Policy, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRT) has approved four new national highways for Tripura.
This is apart from development project of three national highways � Agartala-Sabroom, Agartala-Udaipur and Udaipur Agartala. MoRTH Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who arrived here on whirlwind visit to the State on Saturday, held meetings with officers of the MoRTH, NHIDCL and State PWD to discuss in detail progress of different ongoing National Highway projects.
�Currently, the State is having six national highways which cover around 854 km out of that development works on 621 km are entrusted with NHIDCL while the remaining portion is with the PWD,� he said.
�Four roads covering 229 km have been approved in principle by the MoRTH. Work of preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) on these stretches is under process and actual will kick start after approval of their DPRs�, he said. The Centre has taken major initiative in highways construction sector. �During the last three years, eight NH works of the State covering 131 km have been sanctioned with a total cost of Rs 1523 crore,� he said, adding that it has been targeted to award a length of 67 km with estimated cost of Rs 500 crore during the current financial year.
According to Mandaviya, development of 198 km Agartala-Churaibari, considered lifeline of the State, has made good progress. The work is expected to get completed by next two years. The facelift projects of Agartala-Udaipur and Udaipur-Sabroom would be completed by next year.
To a query, the Minister said that all the NHs will be double lane with pavements. On the inland waterway, he said that there is a plan to connect Kolkata with Bangladesh via Assam and if the plan is implemented, burden on the chicken neck will be reduced.
