Sops for local contractors

Our Correspondent

Itagar, May 2: The Aruchal Pradesh government and the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in a joint meeting here on Thursday decided to initiate measures to benefit the local contractors by way of planning small road packages in the state so that the locals can participate in the tendering process.  The joint meeting was convened in presence of Union MoRTH Minister Nitin Gadkari and state Chief Minister bam Tuki where, it was decided that infrastructure development in the state must also benefit the local contractors besides having quality roads, planning secretary Som Chombey informed in a statement here today.

According to the decision arrived in the meeting, the tiol Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) in consultation with the state PWD would devise a mechanism to make small packages of road projects so that local contractors can participate in the tender process.

The state PWD would prepare list of top 150 contractors in the state and send them for capacity building workshop to be hosted at Guwahati this month which, would be followed by more capacity building programmes for the Aruchalee contractors, the statement said.

 “Major road projects (2,470 KM) are under way in the Aruchal Package under the SARDP (NE), which includes the Trans Aruchal highway and District Connectivity. This initiative will go a long way in up scaling the entrepreneurial capabilities of the local contractors,” the secretary said in the statement. “For the small contractors also, the state government will organise similar capacity building workshop by sensitizing them to latest technology and accounting practices,” he added in the statement.