KOHIMA, FEBRUARY 22 (MExN): The Nagaland Works and Housing Department has clarified that the project currently underway in the foothill areas of the state is for foothill connectivity, funded by the Nagaland state plan, “and not the Foothills Road.” This was stated in response to a statement by the Convener of the NFHRCC saying that, “the foot-hill road was abandoned for the past 40 years by the State Government, following which a committee was constituted comprising of 10 tribes to take up the ‘extra ordinary project….”
Conceding that the government has been pursuing the construction of the Foothills road for many years now, a press note from the Principal Secretary for Works and Housing, Temjen Toy stated, “it must be understood that such a project did not exist due to funding constraints, and hence the question of abandoning for forty years does not arise.”
He added that works on the connectivity has been taken up systematically as per the work plan and said that the “department cannot be ‘urged to’ delineate from its plans at the behest of non-technical views.” While acknowledging the involvement of various organizations in implementation of the project, it called for cooperation and appealed against passing “sweeping comments and judgment over technical matters.”
It further assured that the government is still actively pursuing funding for the bigger Foothills Road project, the alignment for which will not necessarily follow that of the present connectivity project.
