Kohima, 31 October (MTNews): Deputy Chief Minister of Nagaland, TR Zeliang attended the meeting called by Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, and Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, General VKSingh (Retd.) in Guwahati yesterday to review National Highway projects in the Northeast States.
In the meeting, Zeliang briefed the Union Minister that due to the unique land-holding system in Nagaland, the State Government has a limited role in intervening in the matter. However, Zeliang added that the State Government is working on framing State Land Laws which will help ease the problem.
In response, Gadkari said the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways is sincerely working to build good roads all over the country, but if land is not made available there is little that they can do for the development of the roads. In this regard, he said the State Government should come up with a State Law within a couple of months to help resolve the issues or the Ministry will be compelled to de-scope the portion where there are land issues and the National Highway would be handed over to the State Government and converted to state highways.
The Deputy Chief Minister also raised the issue of rock-fall within the Pakala Pahar stretch on National Highway-29. Zeliang also urged the Union Minister to expedite for completion of all packages of the Dimapur-Kohima 4-Lane road as it has been delayed for so many years.