Gadkari Approves Elevated Corridor for Kaziranga and 6-Lane Ring Road for Guwahati

Guwahati: Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that he would lay the foundation stone for two ambitious projects—elevated corridor for Kaziranga National Park and Guwahati Ring Road in January next year.

Informing that national highway projects worth nearly Rs 3 lakh crore have been sanctioned in the past 10 years, increasing the length of NH by 45 per cent in the region, Mr Gadkari told reporters, “Projects worth Rs 2,89,425 have been given to NE in the last 10 years. These comprise upcoming, ongoing and completed projects.”

He said that the length of national highways in the region has gone up from about 10,800 km in 2014 to 15,740 km now.

Asking Meghalaya and Nagaland to expedite the process of land acquisition by implementing the central law, Mr Gadkari, however, warned that the authorities are facing land acquisition problems in some of the NE states such as Nagaland and Meghalaya and projects could be closed if the issues are not resolved soon.

After reviewing the progress of NH works in Assam, Gadkari also announced a sanction of Rs 800 crore under two schemes for Assam. He said that his ministry has approved the construction of a state of the art 35 km 4 lane elevated corridor at Kaziranga National Park and six-lane Guwahati ring road project.

In a major boost to the roadways infrastructure of the state, he also laid foundation stones for 26 National Highway projects worth over Rs 17,500 crore in Guwahati.

He said, "We are regularly monitoring the projects that are getting sanctioned. Before 2024 comes to an end, we plan to introduce roads like those in America in the entire Northeastern region."

The union minister highlighted regional contractors who stand to benefit from the Centre's ambitions for the region. Mr Gadkari said, "We are going to give work to contractors here instead of those from outside. We have found that they are doing a good job."

He said, "We did a detailed review of all the projects under the state government and have strived to resolve all the pending issues. I would like to commend chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for the work he has done here," he added.

He said, "In Assam, we have completed 48 projects stretching 802 kilometers. Upcoming projects worth Rs 40,863 crores are in the pipeline for which the process of land acquisition has already begun."

Mr Gadkari further said, "In all, Assam has got 248 projects stretching over 4,091 kilometers at a cost of Rs 1 lakh crore. This also includes the upcoming ropeway projects and the multimodal hub at Jogighopa."