Assam to have Rs 40,000 cr investment on roads in 20 yrs

PTI
GUWAHATI, JANUARY 6

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ssam may see an investment to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore in the next 20 years for enhancing its road connectivity, including construction of National and state highways and upgradation of existing ones, official sources said.
“Connectivity is very important and we must have an integrated road network for overall development of the state. For upgrading our entire network, we will require an investment of around Rs 40,000 crore in the next 20 years,” PWD Commissioner (Assam) A C Bordoloi told reporters here.There will not be any difficulty in getting this huge amount invested in the state with many of the planned projects already receiving the Central government’s approval, he added.
“The entire activity will be a mix of various developments. While we are aggressively expanding the NH network, work for upgradation of the state highways are also on full-swing,” Bordoloi said, adding the department’s work some time gets delayed due to problems in land acquisition.
Giving an idea, he said within the next 3-5 years, the state will have around 6,000 km of state highways and over 3,000 km of NH network.
“In the next one year, we will have another 1,000 km of NH in addition to the already completed 1,600 km NH in Assam,” said Bordoloi, who is also the Special Secretary (PWD) to the state government.
During this phase, the newly declared NH-127(B) will be constructed between Srirampur on NH-31(C) and Phulbari via Dhubri, including construction of a bridge over Brahmaputra.
Besides, an alternate NH is being proposed between Guwahati and Silchar in Barak valley to cut the travel time.
Also, work is going on to improve the NH-52 bypass in North Lakhimpur and NH-37 bypass in Gauhati University.
“Apart from new constructions, a big focus is given on expansion of the the existing roads. We are converting the two-lane highways into four-lanes, while the single-lane state roads are being made two-lanes,” Bordoloi said.
On the rural front, he said the Centre has given special attention to improve the rural roads as all-weather roads and projects are being implemented mainly under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) scheme.
Assam has a total of 14,301 km of completed rural roads and around 1,600 km are left to be completed under the PMGSY scheme, he added.
On the road bridges front, over 3,300 have been converted into RCC bridges under different state and central government schemes out of a total of 6,553 timber bridges across the state.