The Centre on Thursday approved Rs1,354 crore five-year project ending 2016, for the construction, upgradation and improvement of 433 km-long road in six North-East states.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its nod to the project christened “ADB assisted North Eastern State Roads Investment Programme”.
A centrally-sponsored scheme of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, the project would benefit around 4.8 million people living around the projects. Others would also reap benefit from lower transport costs and faster transit time, an official statement said.
In the first tranche, 74.7 km road in Assam, 93.4 km in Meghalaya and 34.2 km road would be constructed or upgraded or improved; while in the second, fund would be used for the same in around 63 km road in Assam, 93.2 km in Manipur, 55 km in Mizoram and 20.3 km in Tripura.
Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region has been entrusted with the job of overall coordination with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and participating states and also monitor the progress of the project.