Clearance for road projects
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 25, 2014 -
Apart from the needless ‘dirty’ political vendetta at work every now and then against whatever that is perceived to be the legacy of the precious Congress-led UPA regime, it is really appreciable that the newly installed BJP-led NDA Government has come up with some great initiatives that could actually transform the very contour of India, if everything work out well.
One such initiative is the announcement made by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari on Tuesday about the clearance of over Rs 40,000 crore worth project for road development works to be taken up across the length and breadth of country in the next two-three years with the target of building 30 kms of roads per day.
The announcement has come after a review meeting of over 250 road projects worth about Rs 60,000 crore, which have remained stalled for long due to various issues like land acquisition, environment and forest clearances and others.
Even though half of the amount cleared for the road development projects relate to Jammu and Kashmir, it is good to know that the Union Ministry of Road Transports and Highways has not overlooked the importance of road connectivity in the normally neglected Northeast region and included Rs 15,000 crore road building projects to be taken up in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura.
This is even more than half of the project amount cleared for development of road network for Uttarakhand and realigning roads in Himachal Pradesh.
As we have elaborated an umpteen number of time through this same column, with 70 percent of the population of India living in rural areas where road connectivity exists only for name sake, enhancing connectivity through proper network of roads and bridges should be the cornerstone for any developmental work taken up in the country.
Improper road connectivity is not just the main reason for stopping growth in rural areas and isolation of the rural folks from the mainstream but it also has its bearing on the economy of the country as a whole. So, a nation-wide network of all-weather roads becomes a critical link for progress.
It is in recognition of this critical link between rural connectivity and economic growth that Government of India has launched Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) for improving rural road connectivity and major funding agencies like Asian Development Bank and World Bank have even stepped in to help India in this direction.
In the absence of any other viable mode of transports, development of a well-knit road network, which invariably includes improvement of the existing road condition, assumes greater significance in a region like Northeast.
So, the clearance of Rs 15,000 crore road building projects to be taken up in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura could surely give a major boost in road connectivity in the region as well.
However, one nagging thought that comes our mind at this point is, what if the clearance of the much needed road development projects beyond needless ‘dirty’ politics lands up in ‘dirty’ politics created by our own elected representatives and babus.
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