Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Friday sought the attention of Central government towards the deteriorating condition of Trans-Arunachal Highway (TAH), particularly that of the Potin-Pangin stretch and other roads in the state.
Mein, who along with Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju called on Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari at his office in New Delhi, said that the 407-km long Potin-Pangin stretch of TAH needs the Centre’s immediate attention for early completion.
Mein reminded Gadkari of their February 28 meeting in which MoRTH had agreed to process the sanctioning the project package-wise provided 80% land having continuous length is made available before Letter of Award is issued for each package.
State PWD has already submitted the DPR for all the nine packages to the regional office in Itanagar, he said.
Mein also discussed the terminated projects of SARDP-NE, namely Lalpul-Manmao-Changlang, and reminded Gadkari of a July 12 meeting wherein it was decided to allow a month’s time to the original contractor for mobilising before re-tendering the remaining work.
Mein also raised the issue of Longding-Tissa-Khonsa road to which the ministry agreed to re-tender the remaining work after placing the proposal before the next high-power committee.
Mein sought early sanctioning for Package B and C of the four-lane Itanagar-Banderdewa road (NH-415), which the ministry agreed to consider package-wise sanction provided state government agrees to levy toll on commercial vehicles on this road.
With regard to the two-lane Khonsa-Hukanjuri road NH-315A (35 km), the ministry said that the LA estimate of Hukanjuri- Khonsa is being considered for sanction provided the state government agrees to 2.5 % administrative charges as requested by the ministry. After disbursement of the LA amount fully by the state government, phase-wise DPR submitted shall be considered for sanctioning.
The duo was accompanied by the Minister of WRD, Mines and Minerals, Kamlung Mosang, Advisor to Chief Minister, Wanglin Lowangdong, Principal Resident Commissioner, Jitendra Narain Singh and Chief Engineer (Highway Zone), Toli Basar.