Centre committed to develop road network in Arunachal:

Minister Itanagar, Sep 13 (PTI) The Centre is committed todevelop road infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh and attachingpriority to it, Union Minister Mansukh L Mandaviya said heretoday. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is clear that East andWest should develop equally without discrimination andaccordingly being a minister, who hails from extreme westernpart of the country (Gujarat), I am here in the extremeeastern part to assess the progress of road development," hetold reporters. The Minister of State for Chemical & Fertilizers, RoadTransport & Highways and Shipping has arrived here yesterdayto launch the ambitious ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana’. He today launched another ‘Jan Aushadhi Store’ at Ziroin Lower Subansiri district and inspected thePappu-Yupia-Hoj-Potin stretch of NH 713A which had severelybeen damaged by landslides. The stretch of the highway has been widened to twolane by the Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Ministry ata cost of Rs 450 crore. The work was substantially completed in March last butdue to heavy rain since April this year that triggeredlandslides,the road was damaged at about 30 to 35 spots. Expressing serious concern over the condition of theroad,he suggested that long term measures, hill sideprotection measures need to be undertaken with the input andguidance of expert agencies so that road damages could beminimised. "I have directed the state PWD officials to prepareestimate and submit to the ministry in a week’s time fornecessary repair and maintenance of the 50-km stretch of NH13between Potin and Ziro," he said. Earlier at Ziro, Mandaviya announced an amount of Rs10 crore for maintenance of Potin to Bopi stretch of roadhere. "This stretch of the road (Potin to Bopi) needsimmediate maintenance. So while the land acquisition for TAHis under process, the road needs to be maintained and keptmotorable,"he said announcing Rs 10 crore for the maintenancework. Mandaviya also directed the Western Highway Zoneregional manager to submit the DPR for the maintenance to hisministry at the earliest for release of the announced amount.MORE PTI UPL SUS DIPSNP