NE stalls Act East Policy
Source: The Sangai Express / IANS
New Delhi, July 24 2016:
Even as poor road connectivity in
India's North East continues to
stall the Government's 'Act East
Policy', the State-run company
mandated to improve this
crucial infrastructure will
barely manage 7.5 per cent of its
target by 2019, official data
shows.
According to its updated
work status, the National
Highway Infrastructure De-
velopment Corp Ltd
(NHIDCL), established in
July 2014, will only be able
to construct a little over 300
km of roads till 2019, against
a target of 4,000 km it has
been tasked with building in
the coming years.
The NHIDCL was set up
by the Narendra Modi Gov-
ernment in July 2014 to speed
up road construction in the
North East.
However, the
mandate of the PSU will re-
main far behind when the
Modi Government completes
its five years.
The company, specifically
formed to replace the Border
Roads Organization (BRO)
following its failure to meet
its targets, says it will be able
to complete a total of 63.39
km of roads by 2017, 129.21
km by 2018 and 108.53 km
by 2019.
"Road construction is a
time consuming task and it
takes at least five years of
time.
We face severe hurdles
during the planning as well as
the execution of the road
project.
But whatever we
commit we do," a senior au-
thority of NHIDCL, who did
not wished to be named, told
IANS.
Elaborating the difficulties
faced by the NHIDCL au-
thorities in the execution of
the projects in the North East,
he said : "Land acquisition is
a major issue.
We have not
been able to start the work in
Meghalaya as we have not
been able to get the land de-
spite speaking to the higher
authorities.
Still we are trying
to find out ways after meeting
them over the issue."
Arunachal Pradesh will be
most benefited State in the
entire North East as majority
of the roads to be completed
by 2019 lie in the border and
interior areas of the State.
Most of the NHIDCL
projects now are either at the
preparation of DPR (Detailed
Project Report) or location
identification stage, the offi-
cial said.
NHIDCL was tasked with
constructing over 4,000 kms
of road in the hilly terrains of
India, majority being in the
North East region at a cost of
Rs 45,164 crore (nearly $7
billion).
According to the Govern-
ment, good quality roads in
the North East can boost In-
dia's trade with the entire
South East Asian region,
which has been marred by
poor connectivity.
Earlier, in an interview to
IANS, Vietnam's Ambassa-
dor to India Ton Sinh Thanh
said that they did not wish to
invest n the North Eastern region of India because of poor road and air
connectivity which posed a hindrance to developing tourism and
other economic linkages.
Citing other reasons behind the difficulties faced by
NHIDCL, the senior authority said that there were several
cases where work would get stalled as the contractors used to
go to Court over several "petty" issues.
"As of now we are not even giving chance to the contrac-
tors or the DPR developers to commit any mistake.
We are
either serving them notice or directly blacklisting the compa-
nies if found guilty of any malpractice during the road
contract," the senior authority told IANS.
Among the projects given to NHIDCL in the initial months
in 2014 include 11 projects in Manipur, nine in Meghalaya,
three in Mizoram, four in Nagaland, 23 in Arunachal Pradesh
and seven in Tripura.
In several projects, Japanese infrastructure major Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has also chipped in.
The 100-km road project between Imphal, Manipur, and
Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border is being funded by the
Asian Development Bank (ADB), as it is a link between India
and Myanmar.
Considering the good performance of NHIDCL, the Indian
Government has appointed the Public Sector Unit as a con-
sultant for the construction of over 600 kms of postal roads
in the Terai region bordering Nepal.