Bihar, N-E, TN to be thrust areas in highway Phase III, Govt OK on way

The Government is set to clear the entire Phase Three of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP III) where seven new road projects are to be included for Bihar, taking the length of roads in the state under NHDP III from 113 km to 890 km.

The Government is set to clear the entire Phase Three of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP III) where seven new road projects are to be included for Bihar, taking the length of roads in the state under NHDP III from 113 km to 890 km.

A sizeable portion or around 10 per cent of the total length under NHDP III would be for the North-East states, covering Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. This fits into UPA plans to improve connectivity in states along the China border.

In all, the Government is going to increase the length of roads under NHDP III to 11,530 km — the Cabinet has already given its nod for 6,139 km. In fact, Bihar will have the largest increase in the total length under this programme — up by 777 km.

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The Cabinet was to okay this proposal at its meeting tomorrow but it is being rescheduled, possibly for next week, as Road Transport Minister T R Baalu will not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow.

The NHDP III basically envisages connecting important state capitals and cities of economic and tourist importance that are otherwise not covered under the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South East-West corridor projects.

While work has already started on some of the NHDP III projects (under NHDP III A), the Cabinet approval will be for the entire programme.

Under the approval sought for NHDP III, seven projects would be added for Bihar and five new projects, totalling a length of 613 km, for Assam.

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J&K will have one new 101 km project connecting Srinagar-Baramula-Uri.

Tamil Nadu, which already has approval for ten projects totalling 1,146 km under NHDP III, will now have a total of 13 projects, totalling 1,455 km under this programme — the largest for any state.