Official sources here today said the state government had entered into an agreement with the NHAI and agreed to provide the right of access to 45 metres on both sides of the existing national highway. The state government would also facilitate environmental clearances and other local level permits required by the NHAI, officials said adding the NH-44 was announced in the Centre's plan for development of 9,713 km road in the northeastern region under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North East (SARDP-NE) in two phases.
The Tripura government had been pursuing for the project's implementation that would boost inter-state surface transport and the Centre was committed to building highway between Aizwal and Agartala, it was learnt.
The highway would be improved to two-lane standards, while all the villages and hamlets would be connected through surface transport.
The existing NH-44 from Shillong to Southern tip of Tripura (Sabroom) would be made four-lane, providing efficient highways to Barak Valley and Mizoram, officials maintained.
The ministry has also decided that the National Highways in Mizoram would be improved to two-lane standards and four lanes would be provided up to Aizwal and all the eight district headquarters of the state would be connected by two-lane roads.
A trade route from the proposed Sittwe port in Myanmar would be established to facilitate transport of goods by water route through the Bay of Bengal. Widening and improvement of 706 km-long national highway, stretching to four lane for improving further the connectivity of Agartala, Aizwal, Imphal and Kohima, would be taken up under National Highways Development Project, Phase III (NHDP-III) on Build, Operate and Transfer basis. According to the plan, toll would be levied on the upgraded highways that included four stretches of Doboka- Dimapur (124km), Kohima-Imphal (140km), Shillong-Churaibari (252 km) and Silchar- Aizwal (190km), the officials added.