HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Feb 27: The Silchar-Lumding Broad Gauge project became operational after 18 years from the foundation day. On the other hand, on February 26, 2004, the then Union Finance minister Jaswant Singh laid the foundation stone of the highway project at Silchar. Major General BC Khanduri was the minister of Road Transport and Highways. The mega project called the Highway is stuck in the cycle of eighteen. The citizens are concerned and have several questions regarding the project and in this context, Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy spoke about the whole issue while addressing the journalists here on Sunday.
MP Roy said, “After the entire project started, the then chief minister of Congress government, Tarun Gogoi, did not allow any work to be done for almost ten years from 2007. On the Balachara to Harangajao package, work was held up for a decade because of not getting clearance certificates from the ministry of Forests and Pollution but during the tenure of the BJP government, all the hurdles were overcome and the construction work is going on in full swing.”
“By December 2026, the 4-lane express highway will be fully operational, there will be no obstacles,” stated MP Rajdeep Roy.
The MP also said, “Balachara-Harangazao two-lane work is likely to be completed in May this year and four-lane work is likely to be completed by December. Still another big package of 48 km distance is underway. However, it is certain that the entire route of the highway will be fully operational by 2026.”
MP Rajdeep Roy said that the 31 km stretch of Balachaur-Harangajao has been reduced to 25.15 km. At present, work is going on with the allocated Rs 880 crore. With five years of maintenance, 58 percent of the allocated money has been released but 60 percent of the work has already been completed. More than six hundred workers are working on the 25 km road. 642 pilings, super structures are in progress. 1800 crores have been allocated for the Harangajao Jatinga-Nyrimbungalow route. There will be 12 km of new alignment, new design.
The MP also condemned the news that came out a few days ago about the development fund of his MP constituency as baseless and misleading. The MP countered by saying that he is the number one MP in Assam in terms of success and in utilising MPLAD’s fund.
While elaborating, MP Roy gave statistics and said that he received Rs 5 crores in the financial year 2019-20, and in the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, he released the amount from the MP fund to the PM Care Fund during the Covid-19 period. In the fiscal year 2022-23, he received Rs 5 crore. Rs 12 crores worth of work has already been done. The rest of the money went to PM Care. And with Rs 12 crore, construction of building infrastructure in schools and colleges, construction of playgrounds, community halls, 100 laptops in educational institutions, school software management, 50 sanitary vending machines, incinerators, 335 iron and wooden desks were provided.
