Guwahati, Aug 2: The Centre has cleared the 121-km Guwahati Ring Road which will ease congestion on major National Highways around Guwahati, connecting major cities/ towns in the region – Siliguri, Silchar, Shillong, Jorhat, Tezpur, Jogigopha, and Barpeta.

The decision was taken at the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who approved the development of 7 other important National High Speed Corridor projects with a Length of 936 km at a cost of Rs. 50,655 crore across the country. “Implementation of these 8 projects will generate an estimated 4.42 crore mandays of direct and indirect employment” officials said.

The 121 Km Ring Road will be developed in Build Operate Toll (BOT) mode at a total capital cost of Rs. 5,729 Crore in three sections viz., 4-lane Access-Controlled Northern Guwahati Bypass (56 km), widening of the existing 4-lane bypass on NH 27 to 6 lanes (8 km), and improvement of existing bypass on NH 27 (58 km).

“A major bridge over river Brahmaputra will also be constructed as a part of the project. The Guwahati Ring Road will provide seamless connectivity to long-distance traffic plying on National Highway 27 (the East West Corridor), which is the gateway to North-East Region of the country” officials say.

Infrastructure development is the foundation for a country’s economic prosperity and is critical for improving the quality of life of its citizens. Every rupee spent on infrastructure development has a multiplier effect of about 2.5-3.0 times on GDP.

The Centre said Government of India has been investing heavily in building world-class road infrastructure in the country over the last ten years.

Realizing the importance of infrastructure in overall economic growth of the country, The length of National Highways (NH) has increased abourl.6 times from 0.91 lakh km in 2013-14 to 1.46 lakh km currently. There has been a significant increase in pace of award and construction of National Highways in the country in the last 10 years.

“For instance, the average annual pace of award of NH contracts has increased by 2.75 times from about 4,000 km in 2004-14 to about! 11,000 km in 2014-24. Similarly, the average annual construction of National Highways has also increased by about 2.4 times from about 4,000 km in 2004-14 to about 9,600 km in 2014-24. The total capital investment in National Highways including private investment has increased by 6 times from Rs. 50.000 Crore in 2013-14 to about Rs. 3.1 Lakh Crore in 2023-24” officials say.

Further, Government has adopted a corridor-based highway infrastructure development approach with focus on ensuring consistent standards, user convenience and logistics efficiency, as compared to the earlier project-based development approach, focused on addressing stretches of local congestion. “This corridor approach has led to the identification of a network of 50,000 km of High-Speed Highway Corridors through a scientific transport study based on GSTN and toll data to support India’s transformation into a $30+ Trillion economy by 2047” officials say.

Read: New species of loach fish discovered in South Garo Hills

WATCH:

Find latest news from every corner of Northeast India at hubnetwork.in, your online source for breaking news, video coverage.

Also, Follow us on-

Twitter-twitter.com/nemediahub

Youtube channel- www.youtube.com/@NortheastMediaHub2020

Instagram- www.instagram.com/ne_media_hub

Download our app from playstore – Northeast Media Hub