The deadlock over the construction of Potin to Pangin stretch of the Trans-Arunachal Highway (TAH) is likely to come to an end as the High Powered Inter-Ministerial Committee on Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North East (SARDP-NE) has cleared the proposal of Rs 3988.98 crores for the road project on Thursday.
The project was in suspension after the Concessionaire gave fore-closure notice to the Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways (MoRTH) on February 2 last.
Keeping in view the importance of the long pending road, chief minister Pema Khandu had directed chief secretary Satya Gopal to attend the 79th meeting of the high powered inter-ministerial committee on SARDP-NE to explain in detail the importance and urgency of the road construction.
Accordingly the chief secretary attended the all important meeting and briefed the committee about the significance of this project. Gopal in the meeting stressed that the Potin-Pangin stretch of the TAH was of utmost importance and needed immediate attention of the Central government for its completion.
After detailed deliberations, the high powered committee cleared the proposal which includes additional cost of utility shifting of electricity and water supply.
The committee divided the entire stretch of 351.383 km of Potin –Pangin into three packages by combining package No. 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9 having lengths of more than 100 kms each and costing more than Rs 1000 crores of civil work so that petty problems which could delay the project, could be sorted out.
During the meeting, the MoRTH secretary categorically instructed that bid should be invited in such a manner that one bidder should be awarded only one package.
The MoRTH secretary also requested chief secretary Gopal to be present in the pre-bid meeting which would be held at Itanagar under the aegis of the ministry so that the bidders could be explained about the necessity of completion of the project in a time bound manner.
The committee further instructed the authority concerned to invite bids at the earliest so that work on the important project could see the light of the day.
The bids are likely to be invited in the second week of February 2019.