Silchar, Feb. 27: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi will lay the foundation stone of the long-awaited Rs 148 crore scheme for a 20.3km Silchar bypass, a two-lane road project, at Ramnagar village near Silchar tomorrow.
Sources today said the project, first mooted in the early nineties, was aimed at linking two national highways on the southeastern and western parts of the of town to ease traffic congestion.
At present, all the vehicles have to travel along narrow roads everyday because of acute congestion, which is mainly caused by the inflow of the traffic from the two nearby highways from the adjacent states of Mizoram and Manipur.
PWD sources said as the main streets in the town are choked by the cars entering from Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya through National Highways 53 and 54, at present, there appears to be no solution in sight.
An official estimate said around 5,000 cars enter the town everyday on their way to the neighbouring states.
Cachar deputy commissioner H.K. Dev Mahanta today said the chief min- ister arrived in the town this afternoon after atten- ding a programme in Hailakandi.
Apart from laying the foundation stone for the bypass project, he would also lay the foundation stone of a state engineering college in Nirala village near Badarpur railway town in Karimganj district on the Indo-Bangla border.
Cachar superintendent of police P. Bhuyan today said the adequate security would be provided to the chief minister during his two-day visit to the Barak valley districts.
A posse of 18 securitymen will accompany the chief minister on his visit to the Barak valley.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) under the Union ministry of the road transport and national highways had to abandon the project even after it had drawn up a detailed project report with a projected cost of around Rs 100 crore in 1995.
The BRO was forced to shelve the scheme as during that time its hands were full with other road constructions in the region around this town and the Centre had no other alternative than to ask the PWD (national highways division) to take it up.
The highlight of this road bypass project is a 360 metre long and 162 feet high road bridge over the Barak in Sonabarighat-Saidpur.
The executive engineer of this project, P. Sinha, today said this road project would cover at least 23 villages near this town, including Meherpur, Bhorakhai, Bagpur and Kasipur. Simplex company, which has its headquarters in Calcutta, has bagged this project.
