The mega package for Arunachal Pradesh, including the Trans-Arunachal highway announced by the Prime Minister recently, is not all that the entire Northeast will get. According to officials, another bag of infrastructure goodies for the region, in the form of roads and bridges, is on the way. The Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) for the Northeast, currently standing at 8,737 kilometres, is set to be expanded to more than 10,000 km in the coming budget, say officials. It was only in October 2007 that the SARDP was expanded from 7,620 km to 8,737 km after being approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Now with some states in the region going to polls this year, the Union Government is all set to extend the infrastructure facilities already announced for the Northeast.“There will be several missing links in the proposed 10,000 kilometre plus SARDP, which we are in the process of identifying. A section already identified by us in Arunachal Pradesh will be included in the original plan. While the existing SARDP programme is at some Rs 35,000 crore, the expanded SARDP to be implemented over the 11th and 12 th Plan period will cost over Rs 50,000 crore and change the face of the region. A note will soon be ready in this regard and send for approval,” said a senior official.The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways is putting together a plan to connect the proposed power projects in Arunachal Pradesh with other areas and thereby bring more connectivity to these remote areas.“A 70-km road connecting NH 57 and NH 37 will be constructed to bring accessibility to the valley of Dibang and Lohit which now face major infrastructure problems. The two-lane highway will provide a link to the upper reaches of Assam. At present, NH 37 comes to a dead end near a place called Dhola”, said a senior official of the ministry. “This road will make these remote areas of Arunachal accessible through Assam and provide a linkage to the upcoming power projects,” he added.The project is expected to cost around Rs 1,000 crore and has been planned at the behest of the Planning Commission besides the ministry itself.
