Four-Laning of National Highway: NHIDCL may skip 2.5-km portion due to land glitches

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: NHIDCL (National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd) may skip a portion of the Numaligharh-Jorhat stretch of the National Highway due to abysmal delay in the handing over of land.

NHIDCL had to foreclose the four-laning works in three stretches on the national highway due to the slow progress of works by some construction companies. And now NHIDCL is contemplating on skipping the 2.5-km Dergaon town portion of the Numaligarh-Jorhat stretch of the highway. It is because the State Government has not yet handed over the required land to it. The State Government informed NHIDCL recently that it would hand over land for the Dergaon portion of the national highway by mid-November.

Barring this portion, the four-laning work of the Numaligarh-Jorhat stretch of the highway is nearing completion.

Talking to The Sentinel, Pankaj Singh, Executive Director, NHIDCL's regional office, Guwahati, said, "We cannot start the four-laning work of the Dergaon portion of the highway as the State Government has not yet handed over the land to us. We expect to get land within this month. If we don't get land for this portion, we may skip it.

"We also have other projects in Golaghat, Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Karbi Anglong districts. Such projects have glitches ranging from the handing over of land to forest clearances. As of now, we are not getting cooperation from the district administrations concerned. We expect that the district administration concerned will hand over land and resolve forest clearances soon."

NHIDCL is doing the four-laning work of the national highway from Nagaon to Dibrugarh. It is a fully-owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.

Also Read: NHIDCL forecloses works of 3 NH stretches from Nagaon to Dibrugarh due to slow progress

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