Ranchi: Work on the widening of NH-33, connecting Ranchi to Tatanagar, into four lanes is set to resume soon after a meeting between the officials of Madhucon Projects and the National Highways Authority of India on April 10.

Representatives of forest and environment department and other agencies will also take part in the meeting.

Union road construction secretary K. Devsena informed this to state food and civil supplies minister Saryu Roy on Saturday.

In an informal meeting in Hyderabad on Friday, Roy, who represents West Singhbhum in the state Assembly, had asked Madhucon Group founder N. Nageshwar Rao why the road-widening work had been pending for all these years.

Rao, who is a Lok Sabha member and a senior leader of Telugu Desam Party, said that his company had not been provided land and environmental clearances. He also complained about the absence of a route map for building an underground elephant corridor.

"I urged him to complete the construction of drainage between Dimna Chowk and Pardih Chowk soon to prevent water-logging in low-lying areas such as Kalika Nagar in Mango during monsoon, but Rao remained non-committal," Roy said through a communiqué.

Roy then directed Devsena to take steps to resume the road project that had been hanging fire despite Madhucon being provided 90 per cent of requisite land and the release of additional funds by NHAI.

Devsena agreed to facilitate a meeting between Madhucon executives and NHAI officials on April 10.

Ranchi-Tatanagar four-lane project was initially scheduled for completion in 2016, but has missed many deadlines. Reportedly, from January 2013 till now, a little over 40 per cent of the work to widen the 163km of the highway between Namkum (Ranchi) and Mohulia (Jamshedpur) has been completed.