Centre withdraws Rs 66 crore sanctioned for Mizoram border road project

Aizawl: The Centre has withdrawn Rs 66 crore initially sanctioned for the construction of a border road between Sangau and Saisihchhuah, intended to connect south Mizoram's Lawngtlai district with Myanmar's Chin state, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar said on Friday.

In a written reply to a question from Mizoram's Rajya Sabha member K. Vanlalvena in Parliament, Majumdar said the Rs 66.08-crore border road project was sanctioned in February 2021 and was to be executed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a release by the state's Information and Public Relations Department said.

"The sanctioned amount for the project was withdrawn by the Centre as the state government failed to provide the required land free of cost by June this year," Majumdar, the Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Minister also mentioned that the Sangau-Saisihchhuah road project has now been incorporated into the Thingsai to Pangkhua-Sangau road project under General Staff (GS) funding of the BRO scheme.

In another response, Majumdar, who also holds the Education portfolio, informed Parliament that the Centre has sanctioned Rs 669.75 crore for the construction of a permanent campus for the National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Lengpui, near Aizawl.

He added that the government is taking steps to obtain the necessary forest clearance for the project. Majumdar noted that the first academic session of NIT in Mizoram began in 2010, and the institution currently has 668 students.