GUWAHATI: The central government has approved a new 160-km high-speed corridor between Shillong and Silchar. This four-lane project, part of the Bharatmala plan started in 2017, will improve infrastructure in Northeast India. It will connect Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura and help speed up the movement of defense personnel in the region.
The new corridor will replace the old NH-6, which has poor road conditions, especially in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills. The Shillong-Silchar expressway will also boost the local economy and make travel easier by reducing disruptions caused by landslides and road damage, particularly in the Ratacherra area during monsoons. Better connectivity will make transportation and trade across these states more efficient.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had approved the proposal to widen the Amingaon-Barpeta Bypass.
Thanking Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari for his quick action on this issue, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said, "This stretch will be considered an important highway connectivity, which will hugely increase the smooth transportation of millions of people travelling from Barpeta to Guwahati or beyond. The alignment for the 75-km-long Amingaon-Barpeta Bypass through Amingaon, Dadara, Singimari, Hajo, Mukalmua, Rampur, Barpeta, and Howly as a part of National Highway 427 had been approved."
According to PWD sources, this government had accorded topmost priority to road and bridge connectivity. Under the World Bank-funded Assam Resilient Rural Bridge Programme, the works on 1,085 bridges had been going on. Some of the bridges were newly constructed ones, some were being repaired, and some were timber and steel bridges being replaced with RCC bridges. The World Bank had funded Rs 4,359 crore for this programme.
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