Arunachal Pradesh governor wants better road connectivity

Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma emphasised on the need for better road connectivity in the state for overall development. Addressing the 62nd plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) at New Delhi on Tuesday, the governor said that the Border Roads Organisation is assigned responsibility for implementation of roads in Arunachal Pradesh through Vartak, Bramkank, Udayak and Arunank projects, a Raj Bhawan communiqué said in Itanagar today.[caption id=“attachment_949073” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Slow road projects in North East. Reuters[/caption] “A senior officer of the rank of additional director general of BRO tasked with responsibility of coordinating these four projects should be posted in Arunachal Pradesh for proper monitoring of these projects and coordination among project officers, the state government and the Union government,” he said. Urging the NEC to take a lead in developing the 160 km road from Pangsau (India) to Myitkyina (Myanmar) on the lines of Tamu-Kaleywa Indo-Myanmar Friendship road, the governor said India’s Look East Policy holds immense potential for the region. “North East region is the lynchpin for success of this policy, with connectivity as its prime concern. Therefore the focus must be on developing the historic Stillwell Road,” he said. While sharing his experience of his visit to Changlang district, Sharma stressed on the need to formalise and improvise trade through Pangsau Pass, making trading a regular feature and Pangsau town a trading hub. To facilitate the initiative, he called for co-opting a senior officer from the external affairs ministry in the NEC. Raising the issue of the 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri project which was started in January 2005, the governor said construction work at the site has been halted since 20 December 2011. “So far, Rs 6,000 crores have been spent and the project is more than halfway through and because of some issues between NHPC and the government of Assam, this is resulting in time and cost overrun causing huge loss to national exchequer. The issues between concerned parties need to be resolved urgently,” he said. The governor appealed to his counterpart in Assam and the chief ministers of both states, the Centre and the NEC to take steps to resolve these issues and get work started on the projects at the earliest. Emphasising strengthening infrastructure along the border, the governor said that the NEC “needs to lay special emphasis on development of border areas and supplement the resources of Border Area Development Project (BADP)”. He informed that the state government has submitted a proposal for three projects - connecting 22 unconnected administrative centres; providing drinking water facilities in border areas; and construction of porter tracks, log bridges and foot suspension bridges in border areas, for the locals as well as Army and paramilitary forces. He requested the NEC and the home ministry to allocate additional resources for these projects, the communiqué added. PTI