Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the central Government has sanctioned a whooping Rs 190,000 crore to develop 12,000 km road projects in the northeastern states. Detailing the sanctioned amount, he said the government had sanctioned Rs 166,026 crore for construction of 10,892 km of roads in all eight states under the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corp Ltd.

Another amount of Rs 17,257 crore was sanctioned for various states’ Public Works Departments for construction of 2,421 km length of roads. The National Highway Authority of India has been sanctioned Rs 7,000 crore for road construction.

“Our government is giving the highest priority for the development of road infrastructure in the northeast. We are getting good results but we need cooperation from the state government to resolve land acquisition, forest and environmental clearances, and encroachment solutions to accelerate construction of road projects,” he told journalists.

Gadkari held a marathon review meeting with Chief Ministers and Public Works Department Ministers of the eight northeastern states here in Meghalaya.

“We have taken a lot decisions for the infrastructural development of northeast and the meeting was fruitful,” he said, even as he cautioned that there would be no compromise on the quality of work and zero tolerance towards corruption.