The central government has agreed to construct other important road projects of the state including a total of 26 km elevated road on Bindal and Rispana rivers at a cost of 6164 crores. The state government will take action for land acquisition, forest land transfer for these projects. Along with this, the state will also give exemption in the amount of SGST and royalty. Many important decisions were taken in the meeting of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami with Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Thursday. An agreement has also been reached to give an amount of 110 crores of Central Road Infrastructure Fund to Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told Union Minister Nitin Gadkari that due to the excessive increase in the number of passengers during the Chardham Yatra, the traffic pressure on the roads has increased. In view of this, the cooperation of the Center is necessary for various projects. Nitin Gadkari assured financial support on meeting the expectations of the Central Government on the elevated road being built on Bindal and Rispana rivers. The Central Government will also bear the additional expenditure of Rs 183 crore in the revised alignment of National Highway-109 due to the construction of Pantnagar Airport in Udham Singh Nagar district. The state government will give exemption in SGST amount in this. Union Minister Gadkari also agreed to get Khatima Ring Road constructed through NHAI, widening of Barwala-Katapathar-Juddo-Lakhwar Band Division road of NH number 507, road widening under Dugadda-Gumkhal Division. The process of forest land transfer for the first part of Rishikesh bypass (Nepali Farm to Dhalwala) will be completed in the next three months. After this, a decision will be taken regarding this project of total length of 10.88 km and cost of Rs 1546 crore. It was also decided in the meeting that the process of approval of tender for construction of Kedarnath ropeway by National Highways and Logistics Management Limited will be done after consultation with Chief Minister and Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Ajay Tamta.
Union Minister of State Ajay Tamta, State Principal Secretaries RK Sudhansh and R Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey were present in the meeting.
