Arunachal govt giving top priority to construction of roads in border areas: Official

The Arunachal Pradesh government is giving top priority to construction of roads in the border areas of the state, a senior government official said on Friday.

All roads to border areas of the state are of strategic importance and the government has attached top priority for which timelines have been fixed to speed up the process, state Land Management secretary Dr Sonal Swaroop said.

On Thursday, a threadbare discussion on issues relating to land acquisition, forest clearance, allocation of quarries and joint surveys in all border districts was held during a video conferencing from Project Arunanak headquarters here, with Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director General Lt Gen Harpal Singh and state chief secretary Naresh Kumar and other officials.

When the BRO DG highlighted about the ongoing construction of strategic highways and bridges in the state despite labour crisis due to prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the chief secretary assured of all possible cooperation to give a new impetus to border road construction for achieving the expected results, Swaroop said.

During the video conference, all ongoing infrastructure projects including roads to border areas by the BRO were reviewed, the secretary said.

The sensitive border state of Arunachal Pradesh shares 440 km border with Myanmar, 160 km with Bhutan and 1,080-km with China.