Rijiju reviews progress of highway projects in Arunachal

New Delhi, Aug. 25 (PTI): Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday reviewed the highway projects being implemented in Arunachal Pradesh and directed officials to expedite the work.

At the meeting, Rijiju, the Union Minister of Law and Justice, said the overall progress on the road projects being executed by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) in the state is satisfactory.

“I took an extensive review of all the important road infrastructure projects of Arunachal Pradesh. Have asked to FastTrack the execution which are much delayed due to land compensation, logistics of contractors, litigation and other issues, he tweeted.

Rijiju represents Arunachal Pradesh in the Lok Sabha.

The managing director of the NHIDCL gave a detailed presentation on all the highway projects, as well as the Indo-China Border Road (ICBR) projects, being executed by the corporation.

He said 15 projects have been completed and 25 are in progress.

Rijiju directed to speed up the construction work and said the contractors be directed to fully mobilise their manpower and resources so that the work can be taken up in full swing at the end of the current rainy reason.

The minister also said he would like to visit the projects of the NHIDCL in the state in the last week of September.

It was also decided in the meeting that the pending issues of land acquisition, forest clearance and utility shifting would be taken up with the state government regularly for early resolution in the interest of the projects, keeping in view the strategic importance of these highway projects, an official statement said.

The NHIDCL MD assured the minister that the corporation will monitor all projects with contractors and authority engineers closely and intensely on regular basis for their early completion.

The NHIDCL has already taken up the land acquisition, forest clearance, utility shifting issues with the state government and promised to persue the same with it for the early resolution of the pending issues, the statement said.