From Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSME, Nitin Gadkari today inaugurated 15 National Highway projects in Nagaland and laid the foundation stone for 14 others at a cost of around Rs 4,127 crore. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of Road Transport, Highways and MSME said that 55 highway projects worth Rs. 11,711 crore were sanctioned for the state in the last six years. These NH projects have a length of about 2612 kilometres, including a cost of about Rs 4,127 crore, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.
Besides Nagaland Chief Minister Nifiu Rio and Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways VK Singh, MPs, MLAs and senior officials were present on the occasion. Gadkari said that the Centre is committed to the development of Northest and Nagaland and informed that the NH network in Nagaland during the last six years added 667 kms, which shows an increase of about 76%. Union Minister Gadkari further said that this includes 3 km of concrete roads of about 48 km as part of the improvement of Dimapur City Project (the largest city in Nagaland), with a total cost of about Rs. 1,598 crore. He said that 16 works of 690 km length of Rs. 79055 crore are in progress. Another seven works of 105 km are in tender stage with a cost of Rs 966.75. He also indicated that 11 works of 11 km length cost Rs. 2,127 crore are to be sanctioned during 2020-21 with enhanced approval roof. Five works of 524 kms costing more than Rs. 6000 crore are in DPR phase.
