Deputy Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Chowna Mein reviewed the status of land acquisition, forest clearance and utility shifting, etc., of Trans-Arunachal Highway, district connectivity roads and other National Highway projects with the Deputy Commissioners (DCs), executing agencies and other stakeholders at the State Civil Secretariat in Itanagar on Monday.
He said that the State has a very limited working season and called upon the DCs to take up the land acquisition issue seriously and expedite the process. Mein stated, “DCs have to play a very important role in accelerating the road connectivity. Union Minister of Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had assured us to invest and construct roads worth Rs 50,000 crore in the State but we are not able to take advantage of the support given by the Centre.”
He added, “We are running much behind schedule. It is high time we realised the importance of road connectivity and gave preference to roads over the compensation. With road connectivity, other kinds of development will follow.”
He instructed the DCs to hold a fortnightly meeting with executing agencies such as Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and whenever any issues come up in the road construction process. He also urged them to take the help of the local representatives of the area to convince the people and resolve issues at construction sites whenever they come up.
The Power and PHE and Water Sanitation departments were also instructed to complete the shifting of utility services by the end of October to enable land acquisition and handing over of 100 per cent encumbrance-free land to the concessionaires.
Chief Secretary Satya Gopal advised abiding by the guidelines in preparing estimates for the compensation and said that any deviation from the notified rates will not be accepted by the Government nor by Ministry of Roads Transportation Highways (MORTH). He said that the State Cabinet on Monday passed a resolution to demolish all the structures that fall in the Right of Way (ROW) of highways.
Officials of MORTH, NHIDCL, BRO and Public Works Department (PWD) (Highways) made power-point presentations on the status of land acquisition, forest clearance and utility shifting, etc., of highway and road projects. Other issues faced by the executing agencies, BRO and other stakeholders were also discussed in the meeting.
Among others, Commissioner (PWD) Bilatee Pertin, Chief Engineer Highway Toli Basar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) and Principal Secretary (Environment and Forest), Dr Ravindra Kumar, DCs, officials of NHIDCL, BRO, PWD (Highways) and representatives of the contractors were present at the meeting.