Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, on Tuesday said that Rs 18,869 crore worth projects will be implemented in Meghalaya by the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), reported Shillong Times.
Gadkari, while reviewing North-East (NE) India’s ongoing national highway projects, told reporters that NHIDCL will be taking care of all the road projects in the NE region instead of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) because NHIDCL “is responsible for construction of roads in the NE and was established by the government for special road construction”.
The Minister, while praising fast-tracking of all road projects in the region by NHIDCL, said that road projects totalling 52 km and worth Rs 520 crore were ongoing in Meghalaya while in the Bharatmala project, 599 km of roads at a cost of Rs 8,686 crore would be constructed.
“Similarly, other DPRs are also in the process for 644 km of roads at a cost of Rs 9,663 crore,” Gadkari said.
Already, there are 12 km of ongoing road projects worth Rs 164 crore. “Projects worth Rs 159 crore will be sanctioned for Meghalaya this year,” he informed.
NHAI is currently carrying out 62 km of road projects worth 563 crore in Meghalaya, which is slated to complete by next month.
Gadkari also said that a total of Rs. 166,026 crore of works was being carried out in the North East region while the PWD’s cost involvement in it was Rs 17,257 crore. He also said that NHAI had already completed 850 km of projects in the region at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore.
Gadkari also requested the co-operation of all Chief Ministers and asked officials of the region to review the work being done every three to four months.
He, however, warned that if any compromise was found in the quality of roads, stringent action would follow.