"Of the total Rs 15,000 crore road projects envisaged for the North-East, Rs 6,000 crore worth highways will be developed in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 2,000 crore projects each in Nagaland and Meghalaya and the remaining ones in other parts of the region," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said here.
The Minister, who was here to dedicate 4-laning of Shillong bypass and Jorabat-Barapani to the nation, said the central government will encourage the local contractors in the region to take up civil works for road projects with the aim of providing employment to the local population.
"These measures will ease the bottlenecks in establishing the road projects," he said.
He added that the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) will provide 10 per cent machinery and 10 per cent resource mobilisation to the local contractors in advance to commence work on the highways.
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Gadkari said that 18 new jetties will come up on the Brahmaputra river.
The project, developed at an estimated cost of Rs 226 crore, was completed in two years after work began in 2011.
The four-laning of Jorabat-Barapnai has been done to improve road connectivity between Guwahati and Shillong. The project length is 61.80 kms which includes the Umsning Bypass (5.82 kms).
The work has been substantially completed except in the Umsning Bypass stretch where pre-construction activities such as survey and site layout work is in progress.
The construction of the section has improved transport infrastructure in the North-East, particularly in Barak Valley region in Assam and in the states of Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya.
At present, 12,000 vehicles ply on this road per day.