Cabinet clears wildlife corridor, four-laning of NH-715 in Assam

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday has approved widening of the Kalibor-Numaligarh section of NH-715 to four-lane and improvement of the existing carriageway. It also approved construction of an elevated corridor in order to aid the movement of wildlife from Kaziranga National Park in Assam.

The existing Kalibor-Numaligarh section of NH-715 (old NH-37) has a configuration of two-lanes, passing through Assam’s towns of Jakhlabandha and Bokakhat. A major part of the existing highway passes through the Kaziranga National Park.

During the monsoon, the area inside the park gets flooded leading to the movement of the wildlife from the park towards the elevated Karbi-Anglong Hills by crossing the existing highway. The heavy round-the-clock traffic on the highway results in frequent accidents and deaths of wild animals.

To address these challenges, the project will involve construction of an elevated corridor of about 34.5 km, covering the entire cross movement of wildlife from Kaziranga National Park to Karbi-Anglong Hills, for free and un-interrupted passage of wildlife. The total cost of the project is Rs 6,957 crore.

The upgraded corridor will enhance multi-modal integration by connecting with three railway stations (Nagaon, Jakhalabandha, Vishwanath Charli) and three airports (Tezpur, Liabari, Jorhat), thereby facilitating faster movement of goods and passengers across the region.

The project aims at generating approximately 15.42 lakh person-days of direct and 19.19 lakh person-days of indirect employment and will open new avenues of growth, development and prosperity in surrounding regions.