Nagaland: Foothill road construction stopped, several projects in progress

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Aug. 3 (EMN): Several starred questions including the Foothill road and other development projects were raised on the first day of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Tuesday.

Status of Foothill road

Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton stated that road construction work of the Trans Nagaland Highway, also known as the Foothill road, had stopped since funding under Special Plan Assistance (SPA) was discontinued.

However, construction of RCC Bridge 2-lane over Doyang River near Governor’s camp was in progress, he informed.

Patton, who is also in-charge of Roads and Bridges, was replying to a starred question posed by MLA Kuzholuzo Nienu.

“Since funding under SPA is discontinued, the state has proposed to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for declaring this road as a National Highway to take up the project under National Highways. The decision by MoRTH is still pending,” he said.

DC office in Phek

Replying to starred questions raised by MLA Kuzholuzo Neinu during the session, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio stated that the ongoing work at DC office in Phek district was 93% completed and still in progress. 

Rio, who is also the minister-in-charge of Civil Administrative Works Department, informed that contractor M/S Keduo-o Zumu was responsible for the undergoing project which costs INR 972.46 lakh (revised), out of which INR 555.65 lakh had been allocated for the work up to date.

He further informed that payment of INR 557.41 lakh had been made till date while an amount of INR 100 lakh had been booked during 2020-22, and that a balance amount of INR 316.81 lakh had to be paid.

Upgrading Wokha headquarters roads

Rio updated the names of the six projects taken up for upgrading headquarters roads of Wokha town during 2020-21.

While replying to the starred questions by MLA Chumben Murry, he affirmed that three firms had applied for the works while the tendering process was adopted for allocation of the works.

Rio, who is also the minister-in-charge of Urban Development, informed that the work was allocated to M/s Humtsoe Construction while 75% of the work was completed.

Details of creation of capital assets

Temjen Imna Along, minister of Tribal Affairs, presented the list of projects sanctioned to the Planning and Coordination and Tribal Affairs departments under the Central grants (Proviso to Article 275 (1) of the constitution) during 2019-20 to the state government on creation of capital assets (non-recurring).

While replying to starred questions by Kuzholuzo Neinu, Imna Along listed about 31 projects under the Planning and Coordination department, for which an amount INR 4,105 lakh was said to have been released by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

He also furnished the details of seven projects under Tribal Affairs for which an amount of INR 1,938.40 lakh had also been released by the Ministry.