Road Development Ecosystem for the North East Region

Roads are one of the most important development demands from the North East (NE) Indian States. Density of roads in North East Region (NER) is far less than the national average. NER Vision 2020 and XIth Five Year Plan also emphasize requirement of expansion, maintenance and improvement of the road network at all levels from National Highways (NH) to rural roads and even porter tracks to provide the essential basis for trade and economic development. Even though the road network per capita is significantly higher in NER compared to the rest of the country, the road length per unit area is low, making the accessibility requirement of inhabitants a need to attend to. A. Saurikhia, Senior Scientist & Head, TMBD, CSIR-CRRI, writes on the special needs and strategies for NER and the technology management initiatives.

Roads & Highways:Hurdles and Solutions…

During 2012-13, there has been a general economic slowdown, and this, along with other external factors, adversely affected the performance of Highway projects in India. Out of total targeted award of 8,100km, NHAI could award only 1,116km of NHDP projects. However the performance on the construction front was much better ? against a target of 3000km, 2702km was achieved. In the year 2011-12, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was able to award only 1,933km of projects as against the target of 9,500km. The Ministry has made sustained efforts to identify the issues ? delay in land acquisition, environment and forest clearances, shortage of equity, management of contracts etc ? that affected the performance of the highways sector and worked out some solutions. The following article by Vijay Chhibber, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, gives an overview of the Indian Highways and the measures taken by the Ministry to speed up the road building activity.