Japanese team in town State seeks investments in roads, PHED
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 10 2013 : The State Government has put across some proposals for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JAICA) to invest in Public Health Engineering Department and in construction of cross-country roads.

A three member delegation of JAICA arrived at Imphal yesterday and they have been conferring with State Government officials regarding the areas where the funding agency may invest.

The delegation include JAICA South Asia Development Director Madsumuto, Deputy Assistant Director Honda Koji and Delhi based representative of the funding agency Ch Fukuda.

The team held a meeting with Works Minister Dr Kh Ratankumar and PHED Minister I Hemochandra yesterday.

The team went to Moreh today and made a spot assessment of the border trade going on there.

Later in the evening, the JAICA team held another meeting with the Chief Secretary where Dr Ratankumar and I Hemochandra were also present.

During the meeting, State Government officials put up a proposal for construction of 21 secondary water resources at Imphal which would be fed with water drawn up from Thoubal Multipurpose Project.

It is estimated that the project water diversion and construction of secondary reservoirs would cost around 230 million dollar.

The officials also raised another proposal for connection of Imphal-Moreh highway with Imphal-Jiribam highway which would then connect Silchar and Bangladesh.

Notably, ADB has already agreed to invest and develop Imphal-Moreh highway as a standard highway.

The JAICA team would come back to Imphal next month.

Meanwhile, Asian Development Bank and the State Government have signed an undertaking for appointment of a construction supervision consultant with regard to construction of a highway which would link Tupul with Kasom Khullen via Bishnupur and Thoubal which would be financed by ADB.

The construction supervision consultant would comprise of 22 members of whom 19 would be engineers.

The other three members would be one economic expert, one financial expert and one sociology expert, informed a source.

The construction supervision consultant team would station themselves at Imphal from next month and study whether the DPR can be executed in accordance to ADB guidelines.

Even if it is found feasible that the DPR can be executed, the team would further study quality specifications of the highway construction project.

In case the DPR cannot be executed according to the ADB guidelines, ADB would pull out from the project, added the source.

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