NORTHEAST HIGHWAYS - A DREAM: NORTHEAST HIGHWAYS

NORTH EASTERN EXPRESSWAY

Many years ago, I conceived a dream.

I was a young professional working for Oil India Limited, based at the company’s headquarters in Duliajan. Oil well drilling was my profession. My job entailed deployment in remote areas, far removed from human habitats, and often in the midst of dense forests. Our company tried to make our lives as comfortable as technologically possible. Portable generators, improvised water heaters, gas-fed kitchens etc made our life pretty easy. Moreover, company of likeminded friends made our days rather stimulating and at times, quite rewarding.

However, commuting was a huge problem. The roads leading to the work and camp sites were not paved and rains often made them slushy and slippery. One of our projects was located in Arunachal Pradesh. The state was at a very early stage of development those days i.e. in the 70’s and the 80’s. This strategically vital state literally had no road network. We drove our Ambassador cars through freshly bulldozed jungle tracks keeping a close watch on vehicle speeding from the other side. There were number of streams and rivers which were piled with big boulders across their widths for the vehicles to wobble through.

A few stretches of roads maintained by PWD were in a deplorable shape. After a strong monsoon, heavy rains washed away the patchy repair jobs exposing innumerable potholes. During a meeting between our company and government officials, one of our representatives quipped, “There is actually just one large pot hole with patches of roads everywhere”.

Another weird phenomenon within Arunachal Pradesh was a total lack of connectivity even between two contiguous districts. Vehicles of all sorts had to shuttle through the state of Assam.

One tiring evening, while driving to Duliajan from Arunachal Pradesh, in my much abused Ambassador car, I conceived my dream.

This region, known nationwide as the seven sister states, was really rich in natural resources. It had a gigantic economic potential with industries based on oil, tea, agriculture, silk and hydro-electric power. The region can also be a touristic paradise with its rich flora and fauna in abundance. The seven sisters, I thought, deserved a well-developed road network.

I dreamt of a wide highway along the region’s life line, the mighty Brahmaputra, running through the state of Assam from west to east with branches leading to other states and districts that were still not easily accessible. I was naïve and had no idea how much a project of that magnitude would cost.

However, many years later, when I saw the “Golden Quadrilateral” connecting the four major cities, emerging into a reality in spite of the initial scepticism, my dream was rekindled. Funding a project of any magnitude would not be a big deal if the economic and social potential of the investment was appreciated. A map (Map A) illustrating the highway master plan shows a North-South and an East-West corridor in addition to the Golden Quadrilateral. My dream project could start from the eastern edge of the East-West corridor where it takes a sharp turn toward the southern part of Assam.

Map A

Phase I of our project should be at least be a six-lane expressway, starting from the eastern edge of the East-West Corridor, stretching through the valley to the interior of Arunachal Pradesh at the China-Myanmar end. We would call it “North-Eastern Expressway”. National Highway Authority of India has a plan to widen the two-lane 178 km Numaligarh-Dibrugarh stretch of NH-37 to a four-lane highway. On a long term basis, a four-lane highway would be inadequate.

Phase II of the project would be a Ring Network branching out of the NE Expressway encircling the valley, going through the other states. This could be a four-lane highway with a provision of converting it to a six-lane in the future. We could probably name it as “North-Easter Linkway”. Phase II would be more challenging due to the difficult terrains, countless rivers and tributaries. A number of bridges and flyovers would be needed along its stretch. Connecting the state of Sikkim would be easier. All we would need is a stretch branching out of the East-West corridor.

A rough illustration of the concept has been attempted in Map B.

Map B

Needless to say that both the stretches would be dotted with Rest Areas, Fuel Stations, Holiday Resorts and Trekking Camps, wherever feasible. Such an enormous and high cost road network cannot be accessed free of cost. Toll gates will be installed at major Entry and Exit points.

Will any private entrepreneur be interested to execute the project on a BOT (Build-Operate & Transfer) concept? This is not unprecedented. Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh was developed by a private company. The cost of this six-lane 160 KM expressway was Rs 13000 crores. Of course, that would be peanuts compared to the expected cost of the North Eastern project.