Nagaland: Dimapur Bypass to be completed soon: Gadkari

Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 5

The construction of Dimapur Bypass in Nagaland connecting National Highway 36 and 29 is to be ‘completed soon,’ the Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Government of India Nitin Gadkari informed on April 5. 

The completion of the bypass is expected to give relief to the heavily congested Dimapur, he said.  

“Construction of the very important Dimapur Bypass in Nagaland is ongoing and scheduled to be completed soon. This 35 km bypass is a Greenfield Alignment which will connect NH-36 and NH-39 avoiding the heavily congested Dimapur town,” Gadkari updated on Twitter.

As per the MoRTH, the Greenfield project generally passes through new areas and is designed to avoid inhabited areas and go through new alignments, which among others, reduces the per unit cost of land acquisition while bringing development to new areas.

The bypass aligned with the four-laning NH-29 from Dimapur-Kohima is being built under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North East (SARDP-NE) on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.

Detailed status of road projects in Nagaland under the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) as of March 31, 2021, informed that the bypass is being built in two sections – Nagaland and Assam portions. 

The ‘Likely date of completion’ for the Nagaland portion (Daboka-Dimapur) with a total New Alignment length of 20.683 Km (Km 132.375 to Km 153.058) is given as “13-02-2022.” The ‘Target date of completion as per contract’ was September 4, 2020. 

However, the Assam Portion (Km 118.050 to design Km 132.375) connecting NH39 and NH-36 covering a length of 14.325 Km, is expected to be completed as per the date stipulated in the completion as per contract – i.e. November 25, 2022, according to the NHIDCL status report.

It is not known whether the Minister’s tweet is indicative of acceleration in the progress of the construction, but the status from the NHIDCL indicated, the bypass might be finished completely only by the end of the year, if things go as scheduled.