Two projects in Assam costing Rs 7,000 crore makes it to NHAI list

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Two projects in Assam have been included in a list of tentative projects costing more than Rs 500 crore to be taken up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the financial year 2025-26. The two projects with a combined length of 98 km will have a capital cost of Rs 7,000 crore.

The NHAI list contains 124 projects across the country with a total length of 6,376 km. The capital cost envisaged for the 124 projects is Rs 3,45,466 crore.

The projects in Assam include the proposed widening and improvement of the existing National Highway (NH) stretch from Kaliabor to Numaligarh, including the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) elevated road, and the proposed six-lane elevated corridor from Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport at Borjhar to Jalukbari via Azara.

The first project in Assam—the proposed 86-km project for improvement of the existing NH from Kaliabor to Numaligarh,  including the KNP elevated corridor—is to be constructed in Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM). The total project cost is calculated at Rs 5,500 crore.

According to NHAI sources, a length of around 35 km will be elevated in the KNP stretch of the project. In this stretch, a total of nine identified animal corridors at Panbari, Haldhibari, Bagori, Harmati, Kanchanjuri, Hatidandi, Deosur, Chirang, and Amguri are in existence. Special care will be taken regarding the animal corridors during construction of the project, the sources added.

Approval for the use of forest land for the project has already been accorded by the National Board for Wildlife.

As for the second project for the proposed six-lane elevated corridor from Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport at Borjhar to Jalukbari, Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Private Ltd., in association with Innovative Engineering Advisory LLP, has been appointed to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR).

The length of the proposed elevated corridor will be 12 km on NH 17 (old NH 37), and the capital cost for the project has been estimated at Rs 1,500 crore. This project is also to be constructed in Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM).

Earlier, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) decided to improve connectivity from the LGBI Airport to Jalukbari by constructing a six-lane elevated road.

Incidentally, the two projects named above are the only projects for the Northeast region included in the list.

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