Tura (Meghalaya),, Aug 29: One of the most derided roads for its sheer lack of travel quality, the National Highway – 62, is finally set to get underway with land acquisition work to begin soon.
The NH – 62 has been one of the worst roads to ride on due to the extremely bad condition of the highway. This in addition with more than 20 timber bridges has made travel through the area extremely stressful.
Further, despite the district of South Garo Hills (SGH) one of the tourism and bio-diversity hotspots in the state has failed to attract local or outside tourists, due to the lack of proper road infrastructure. The area contains some of the most scenic views in the state including the Siju Caves as well the Balpakram National Park.
Announcing the development, the Rongara – Siju MLA, Rakkam A Sangma, through a social media post informed that the project will finally see the light of the day. Survey on the road has been ongoing since the past few years with drawings already being made up by surveyors on the route.
NH – 62 henceforth will be renamed as NH 217 and will begin from the town of Dudhnoi in Assam’s Goalpara district, connecting through Nongalbibra, Siju, Baghmara in SGH before joining up with the NH – 51 at Dalu in WGH. NH – 217 will also include the stretch of the present NH – 51 and end at Paikan, again in Assam’s Goalpara.
The entire length of the current road is close to 200 kms.
Rakkam informed that the land acquisition process is expected to begin soon through the office of the deputy commissioner (Revenue) of SGH and will be completed on a war footing. While land acquisition would be done for a 4 lane road, the highway in its current state will comprise 2 lanes, with a provision for expansion to be kept later.
Necessary communication on the development as well as the process of land acquisition has been detailed to the DC in the month of July this year.
The news of the NH – 62 finally getting the necessary fillip will bring a huge sigh of relief to the people of the district, especially with the district also getting another major road – Baghmara – Ranikor, already in the early stages of construction.
