WB's 'no' to alignment halts Raxaul-Haldia eway rollout

West Bengal's reluctance to accept the proposed alignment of Raxaul-Haldia expressway has stalled execution of the much-awaited high-speed corridor, connecting Nepal and Haldia sea port in West Bengal via Bihar and Jharkhand.

- Subhash Pathak

PATNA:

The 700-km-long six-lane greenfield expressway was proposed as one of the high-speed corridors across the country last year.

The Central government had proposed to construct high-speed corridors in the length of 5,000 km across the country. Raxaul-Haldia is the second high-speed corridor to pass through Bihar after Gorakhpur-Siliguri expressway, whose alignment was approved by the Centre in March this year.

A senior officer of the road construction department (RCD), Bihar, said that their regular bids to get the alignment of Raxaul-Haldia expressway has been shrugged off by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) owing to West Bengal government's dilly-dallying to the alignment proposed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the state.