Imphal, June 06 2010: A team of Ministers, MLAs and officials led by Works Minister K Ranjit would be embarking on a journey to Jiribam sub-division in Imphal East district tomorrow morning to inspect the condition and situation of NH-53 (Imphal-Jiribam road) .

Official sources said that the Ministerial team is going to embark on the inpection visit on the advice of Chief Minister O Ibobi.

Apart from Works Minister K Ranjit, the team will comprise Transport Minister L Jayenta Kumar, Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board Bijoy Koijam and Chairman of Manipur Pollution Control Board E Dwijamani.

Office bearers and members of transporters' associations, Chief Engineer of PWD, SE and other officials concerned will also join the inspection visit.

The sources said, the Government has already instructed responsible officials of Border Road Task Force (BRTF) to be in their posts on the highway.

According to the official sources, 765 BRTF has been in charge of the road when it was a state highway from Jiribam to Barak since 1968, and 24 BRTF has been in charge of the highway from Barak to Oriental College in Imphal.

Since the Centre declared the road as National Highway-53 in 1980, the responsibility for maintenance and improvement of the highway had been handed over to the BRTF.

The Union Ministry of Surface Transport has been allocating funds for improvement of the highway through the BRTF.

Except for making inspection visits once in a way in a year, the State Government has not had much of power to interfere in the improvement works.

Meanwhile, since works for Tipaimukh Multipurpose Project had started, the Union Ministry of Surface Transport had received reports that at least 10 bridges would be under water.

Therefore, the Ministry had informed the State Government that it would not give further funds for maintenance and improvement of NH-53 .

That's why improvement works on the highway had not been taken up for some time, the sources said.

In view of the frequent obstructions caused by miscreants who support the economic blockade, it is learnt that Chief Minister O Ibobi instructed the Works Minister to go on an inspection visit along with some Ministers and MLAs on NH-53 .

The Government feels that it is very much necessary to improve the NH-53 as the second lifeline of Manipur.

Even though the Central Government has stopped allocating funds for maintenance and improvement of the highway, since the construction of Tipaimukh Multipurpose Project is expected to take at least about 15 years, improvement of NH-53 has become very much necessary.

Chief Minister Ibobi had earlier announced that the Government would allocate funds from its own corpus and improve the highway.