Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 3
Road projects worth approximately Rs 685.43 crore have been approved for the State of Nagaland, informed the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Nitin Gadkari on April 3.
It included widening of existing intermediate lane or single lane to 2-lane in National Highway NH-61 as well as construction of 2-lane with hard shoulders of Merangkong-Tamlu-Mon Road.
Gadkari gave the information in a series of tweets regarding approval of road construction across India on Saturday.
Informing on the approved projects for the North East, he posted: “1 road proposal in Arunachal Pradesh and 2 road proposals in Nagaland has been approved.”
Nagaland specific portions of the tweet included “Rs 226.45 Cr for Widening of existing intermediate lane/single lane to 2 lane from Km 135.00 to Km 147.00 and Km 156.00 to Km 168.00 of NH-61 in the State of Nagaland,” and “Rs 297.25 Cr for Widening of existing intermediate lane/ single lane to 2 lane from Km 185.00 to Km 220.00 of NH-61 (New NH 02) in the State of Nagaland.”
The NH-61 (NH-2) covers Kohima in Nagaland to Jhanji in Assam via Mokokchung. The Minister did not specify whether it is related to ongoing projects on the said highway.
Further, Gadkari informed that “Work of ‘Construction of Two-lane with hard shoulders of Merangkong-Tamlu-Mon road in the State of Nagaland under SARDP-NE on EPC mode has been approved with a total budget of Rs 161.73 Crore.”
As the case with earlier announcement, it was neither clear nor the Minister did not spell out whether the ‘approval’ is in addition to the ongoing construction works of Merangkong-Tamlu-Mon (MTM) Road or an update of earlier approved project.
Under Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) mode, currently construction works on MTM Road are being undertaken in four packages – 0-20 Km (Package I), 20-40 km (Package II), 40-50km (Package III) and 63.80-86.835 (Package IV).
The Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North-Eastern Region (SARDP-NE) project is being implemented with the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) as the nodal agency.
As per an update by the NHIDCL regarding ongoing road projects in Nagaland in February, the ‘Target date of completion as per contract’ of the Packages I&2 II is November and December 2021 respectively, while it is November 2022 for the Package III&IV.
Cumulative Physical progress as on February 28, 2021 were 58.60% (Package -I); 38.55% (Package -I); 23.77% (Package -III); and 18.60% (Package -IV).
On December 4, 2020, Gadkari virtually inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 15 NH projects in Nagaland.
“These NH Projects has a length of about 266 KM involving cost of about Rs 4127 crore,” then stated a release from MoRTH via Press Information Bureau.
Gadkari further informed that the Union Government is committed to the development of North East and Nagaland and said that 667 km were added to the NH network in Nagaland during last 6 years.
He further informed while 16 projects with of length 690 Km amounting Rs 7,955 crore are in progress, another seven works of 105 Km amounting to Rs 966.75 Crore are in tendering stage.
The Minister also indicated that 11 works of 178 km length costing Rs. 2,127 crore are to be approved during 2020-21 with enhanced sanction ceiling and 5 works of 524 km costing over Rs.6,000 Cr are in DPR stage, the release added.
