Assam: Government States Indo-Bhutan Border Road Project Remains Stalled After MHA Rejects Alignments

Guwahati: The Assam Government has  informed the Legislative Assembly on 27^th July that the proposed Indo-Bhutan Border Road Project, Saralpara–Srirampur–Udaipur–Daibuti is stuck as all the proposals made by the State on the alignment have been rejected by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

In reply to Assembly Question No. 378, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the Minister for Public Works Department (PWD), said that the state had started preparing Detailed Project Report (DPR) in 2017 and appointed Wadia Techno Engineering Services Ltd., Mumbai as the project consultant.

The Government has done aerial LiDAR surveys and consulted with MoEFCC, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and other stakeholders and submitted to the MHA many feasible alignments, the Chief Minister said.

However, all the proposed alignments were rejected by the Ministry. The state government said the inability to reach a consensus with the Centre over the alignment for nearly four years resulted in the project being shelved. Consequently, the work was foreclosed on July 31, 2020, and the unspent sanctioned funds were returned to the MHA in June 2022.

In the wake of a question regarding revival of the project, Sarma said it is now up to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Border Road was to improve connectivity, development and security in Assam, in the Indo-Bhutan border region.