AGARTALA, July 14 (TIWN): MPs from Tripura Jitendra Chaudhury and Sankar Prasad Dutta today met Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari and sought intervention over proper fund release and speedy completion of development work on the National Highway 44 among other national highways.

“NH-44 is the only route connecting Tripura with rest of the country which is the life line for movement of essential commodities to the State. Out of its total length of 331.0 km in Tripura, only 84.0 km of NH-44 is 2-lane and the remaining portion is intermediate lane and that too is with very poor geometrics”, the MPs told the union minister and sought adequate fund allotment from the ministry for development and maintenance of NH 44, NH 44A, NH 208 and NH 108 (A).

The Parliamentarians further sought National Highway status for the 134 Km length of Kukital-Sabroom road which connects Dharmanagar, Kailashahar, Teliamura, Amarpur, Jatanbari, Silachari, Rupaichari with Kukital and Sabroom on two extreme borders.

The MoRTH earlier decided to develop the road to existing intermediate lane status of National Highway 44 to two lane with 1.50 m paved shoulders on either sides. The ministry further agreed to develop Agartala – Sabroom section of NH-44.

Union Minister for Surface Transport and National Highways Oscar Fernandez laid foundation stone for double laning of the National Highway 44 in Udaipur-Sabroom segment of South Tripura district in November, 2013.

MP Jitendra Chaudhury sought clearance of a patch of forest land in the alignment of double laning of Udaipur-Sabroom segment in the NH 44 and said that 67 percent of the land requirement for improvement of the segment is already available. 33 percent of the required land is to be acquired of which few portions are within the Forest area for which Forest diversion proposal was submitted to the Forest Department. “Land acquisition process would be started after requisite notifications issued by the MoRT&H. Diversion of Forest land proposal is being submitted to the Regional Office, MoEF, Shillong very shortly after field verification”, he added.