Statesman News Service
MALDA, April 3: The fate of the proposed project for the expansion of National Highway 34, which was scheduled to be complete by 2009 remains uncertain in the wake of protests by local people and political parties regarding land acquisition for the project. Mr Kshiti Goswami, minister in charge, PWD disclosed that one of the consultancy firms engaged in the project has threatened to pull out due to the delay in acquiring land for the project."An American consultancy firm has threatened to pull out of the project due to the delay in land acquisition", Mr Goswami said."We have changed our plan for the construction of the bypass road of NH 34 at Beldanga in Murshidabad and have decided to expand the existing road by converting it into four lanes. We have dropped the earlier plan, which was proposed by the consultancy firm, owing to protests by villagers against acquisition of fertile land for the project," Mr Goswami said in Malda recently. It may be noted that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has undertaken a project to expand NH 34 including the bypass road in many areas where the existing road passes through Santoshpur in North 24 Parganas to Dalkhola in North Dinajpur. Conceding the badcondition of NH 34 in Nadia and Murshidabad and other districts Mr Goswami said: "It needs immediate repairing". However, NHAI is not willing to repair it temporarily since big expansion project is on the cards. When asked about vulnerable bridges of the NH 34 on several rivers the minister said. "When the Sudani Bridge collapsed in North Dinajpur last year, we had to allow heavy vehicles through 'Bengal to Bengal' state highway as an alternative communication, which has damaged the road completely. We have sought a grant of atleast 32 crore to repair the routes."
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