Centre has completed the bidding process for a 718-km stretch of the ambitious Rs 5,500 crore Trans-Arunachal highway, Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said here today.
After unfurling the national flag on the 63rd Independence Day, Khandu said that out of the total length of the 1559-km two-lane proposed highway from Tawang in the western part of the state to Kanubari in the east, PWD will construct 418 km for which the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) are under preparation.
The remaining Tawang-Nechipu and Pasighat-Mahadevpur sections are being developed by the Border Road Organisation.
The highway, one of the important components of the Rs 24,000 crore package announced last year by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be built by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and run through the middle of the border state touching 11 of the existing district headquarters.
The rest of the five districts, including the state capital, will be connected with the road, which is expected to be completed in five years.
To put the state capital on the air map of the country, the Itanagar green field airport project is under process for sanction. Forest clearance for the land earmarked has already been given and environmental impact assessment is complete, Khandu said.
The defence ministry which signed an MoU with the state government for redeveloping airports at Pasighat, Aalo and Ziro has already started the process for operationalisation of these airports, he said.
The defence ministry has also started work to upgrade and operationalise the advance landing grounds (ALGs) at Tuting, Mechuka, Vijaynagar and wallong, all located close to the international border.
The DPR for the highway connecting Itanagar with the rest of the country will be completed by September and the construction of the road link is expected to take three to four years, he said adding that all the PMGSY roads in the state will be completed by 2011.
