Aizawl: The Centre has revoked the initial Rs. 66 crore sanctioned for the construction of a border road linking south Mizoram‘s Lawngtlai district with Myanmar‘s Chin state, Union DoNER Minister Dr. Sukanta Majumdar announced on Friday.
The border road project, estimated at Rs. 66.08 crore, was approved in February 2021 and assigned to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for execution, according to an official statement from the state’s information and public relations department.
However, the Centre withdrew the funding after the state government failed to provide the necessary land free of cost by June this year, Majumdar stated in a written reply to a query raised by Mizoram’s Rajya Sabha member K. Vanlalvena during the ongoing Parliament budget session.
The Sangau-Saisihchhuah road project has now been integrated into the larger Thingsai to Pangkhua-Sangau road project, which will be funded under the BRO’s General Staff (GS) scheme.
In separate news, Majumdar, who also holds the Education portfolio, informed the Parliament that the Centre has sanctioned Rs. 669.75 crore for the construction of a permanent campus for the National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Lengpui near Aizawl.
The government is currently addressing forest clearance requirements for the project. The NIT Mizoram, which commenced its first academic session in 2010, currently has a student population of 668.