Guwahati, Oct. 27 :     BJP leader and former Union minister Kabindra Purkayastha today said construction of the 3,000-km-long Silchar-Saurashtra express highway would begin next month. He said the relevant notifications for construction of the 206-km-long Silchar-Langting stretch and the 116-km-long Langting-Doboka section of the proposed highway had already been issued. ?The express highway, the first of its kind in the country, will be completed in a record time of three years,? the former minister said. ?Work on the road has already begun in at least 30 places,? he added. Purkayastha said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 38,000 crore for the project. He also said the Assam stretch of the highway would be a four-lane one. The Silchar-Langting section of the highway will be constructed by the North-Eastern Council (NEC) division of the Silchar public works department. `Construction of the second stretch will be undertaken by the NEC division, Nagaon. Purkayastha said the Atal Behari Vajpayee government had initiated several schemes for development of the rural areas. ?Within five years, drinking water will be provided to all the villages in the country,? he said. ?The drinking water project introduced by our government last year was discontinued after the fall of the government. But it resumed immediately after the new government was sworn in,? the former Union minister said. Purkayastha said the Centre had also decided to build one crore houses for the homeless in the next five years. ?The housing project will benefit people living under the poverty line,? he said. The BJP leader said the government would pay ?special attention? to development of infra-structure in the northeastern states. ?Ten per cent of the budget allocation for all ministries is meant for the northeastern region,? he said. The former Union minister said the Centre had approved eight new power projects in the region and work on four of these had already begun. Winter session: A weeklong short winter session of the Assembly will begin on October 29, reports UNI. Speaker Ganesh Kutum said the session will have five working days. The Bills to be tabled in the current session include the Assam General Sales Tax(amendment) Bill, Lokayukta and Upa-lokayuktas (amendment) Bill, the Assam Tea Plantation Employees (provincialisation) Bill and the Assam Motor Vehicles Taxation Bill.