Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today urged the Centre to urgently take up steps for expansion and upgradation of highway projects in the state as the state`s highways were not of national standard.
In a meeting with Union Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi here, Gogoi raised issues on improvement of the National Highway sector under Special Accelerated Road Development, Programme for North-Eastern Region (SARDP-NE) and National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) in Assam.
Gogoi requested Joshi to initiate steps to start the construction work for four-laning of NH-37 from Numaligarh to Dibrugarh within this year, an official statement said.
The four-laning project was approved in 2005 on Build-Operate-Transfer Annuity basis under SARDP-NE and the National Highway Authority of India was to execute it.
He also requested the Centre to start construction of a two-lane alternative route between Barak Valley to Nellie via Harangajao-Turuk under SARDP-NE Phase-`A`.
Besides, Gogoi asked the Union minister for a quick Action Plan for construction of two newly declared national highways -- NH-127B from Srirampur to Phulbari via Dhubri and NH-315A from Tinsukia to Hukanjuri in Assam-Arunachal border.
The Assam Chief Minister urged the Centre to take steps for construction of the proposed four-lane bridge over river Brahmaputra for connecting Gohpur on NH 52 and Numaligarh on NH 37.
"This project is under BOT (Annuity). Land survey and feasibility study has been started by the state PWD," he said.
To deal with increased traffic on Guwahati bypass on NH 37 Gogoi urged Joshi to consider six-laning of the bypass with provision of a six-lane flyover.
"The present four-lane capacity of the road is not at all adequate to cater to the growing vehicular traffic," the Chief Minister pointed out.
He also raised a number of projects to develop National Highways in the Barak Valley region.
PTI
