HERITAGE ROAD

Heritage Road comes under NREGA scheme

COOCH BEHAR, Jan. 11: The reconstruction of the Heritage Road that runs through eleven gram panchayat areas will be done mostly under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The proposed road will start from the gate of Cooch Behar Palace compound and it will end at Bengal-Assam border in Tufanganj.

 

District planning and rural development officer, Mr Sunil Agarwala said the first phase of the work would be done under NREGA scheme. The road runs through areas like Chakchaka, Khapaidanga, Natabari, Rampur, Mahishkuchi, Dhalpal and Baxirhat. The gram panchayats concerned are to do the earthwork under NREGA scheme. Required fund has been allotted to the GPs to initiate the job.

 

About Rs 6-crore will be spent for the 57-kilometre road. The standard of the road will be similar to that of a road constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sarak Yojana (PMGSY), Mr Agarwala said. After completion of the earthwork, the public works department will take up the job. They are to complete the job by laying bitumen layer, Mr Agarwala said.

 

It may be recalled that state forest minister Mr Ananta Roy laid the foundation of the construction of the Heritage Road on 6 June 2007. State public works minister Mr Kshiti Goswami too laid the foundation of a bridge over Raidak-II river along the Heritage Road at Takuamari Ghatpar in Tufanganj on that day. The cost of the 310-metre long road-bridge was estimated at Rs 10.5-crore. The estimated cost of the entire project is about Rs 61-crore, sources said.

 

Heritage Road is the road along which the Maharajas, the erstwhile rulers of Cooch Behar State, used to go for hunting game to the then dense forest areas of Takuamari in Tufanganj. Now, after reconstruction of the historic road it will act as a second road to Assam from Cooch Behar and it will also shorten the roadway distance to Assam. Mr Agarwala said. []