Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, July 06: The lone Member of Parliament, Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray today said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has allocated funds for construction of Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) in double lane and also construction of two crucial bridges of ATR, over Middle Strait and Humphrey Strait and works for the tendering process of these important projects are expected to completed by this year end.
Talking to media persons during a press conference at MP Bhawan today the Member of Parliament said that National Highways No.223 was declared by NDA government headed by Mr. A B Vajpayee in 2003. At that point of time the road was 333 km.
He said that during UPA regime the ATR was reduced to only one lane that too only 277 KM. Later the ATR was declared as National Highway NH-4.
“Good news is that, it is now proposed to revert back to the original proposal of two lane of 7 mtrs width. I have personally reviewed the whole matter with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the first week of July 2014,” the Member of Parliament said.
The MP said that he has been informed by Chief Engineer of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways that the tendering process for the double lane ATR will be completed by November 2014 and work is planned to be awarded immediately thereafter.
“The MoRTH has earmarked a provision of Rs. 500 crores for two lane road during 2014-2015 in the Ministry’s budget. Similarly for two bridges across ATR, over Humphrey Strait and Middle Strait the Ministry has provided Rs. 500 crores in the Annual Plan 2014-2015,” the MP added.The MP said that approximate cost of constructing one km of ATR will be Rs. 11 crore and for 277 km these Islands will get Rs. 3047 crores.
“Roughly Rs. 3047 for road and Rs. 500 crores for two bridges are likely to be incurred. This will be a heavy boost to Island economy and this will generate considerable employment,” the MP said.
Bridges over Humphrey as well as Middle Straight on the ATR when materialise would change the face of North and Middle Andamans for ever. Appreciating this endeavour, I would like to invite our Hon’ble MP attention towards the plight of commuters in the route between Bambooflat and Chatham. This channel also needs to be bridged at the earliest. Hope the MP would listed to us, some day.