Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the Centre would spend around Rs 2 lakh crore to build roads, and railway over bridges and under bridges in Bengal in the next three years.

Gadkari elaborated on the projects to be taken up in and around Siliguri by his ministry while addressing BJP leaders, including state party chief Sukanta Majumdar, and media people here from New Delhi virtually.

The virtual address was shown on a giant screen in the BJP office here ahead of the polls to the Siliguri Municipal Corporation. Elections to four municipal corporations, including Siliguri, would be held on February 12, followed by polls to 108 municipalities on February 27.

Apart from Majumdar, Darjeeling BJP MP and the party’s national spokesman, Raju Bista, was also present.

“Around Rs 2 lakh crore would be spent for development of highways and construction of railway over bridges and under bridges across Bengal in the next three years. Work is in progress at a number of locations and will be completed soon. Some other projects have been approved and we are in the process of preparing DPRs (detailed project reports),” said Gadkari.

In his address, the minister mentioned a number of projects pertaining to Siliguri and north Bengal as a whole, which include a four-lane expressway from Gorakhpur of Uttar Pradesh to Siliguri.

“It will be a 542km-long highway, for which Rs 30,000 crore would be spent. This will be a green-field expressway, which means a new alignment would be drawn. The road will move through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal. The project has been planned because of the geographical importance of Siliguri,” the minister said.

Gadkari said his ministry had approved a proposal to construct a ring road around Siliguri to ease traffic congestion in the city.

“Funds have also been allotted for building a four-lane stretch between Balason and Sevoke Military Station (which connects the northwest and northeast ends of the city). There is also a plan to build a strong two-lane road from Sevoke to Rangpo. Also, a three-lane bridge will come up over the Teesta river (near Sevoke),” he said.

Gadkari referred to a number of other projects, which include completion of the four-laning of some stretches of NH 27 – the principal highway that connects the Northeast – from the outskirts of Siliguri and till the Bengal-Assam border.

Asked about the land required for a number of road projects in Bengal, he said he expected cooperation from the state government.

Gadkari referred to a number of other road projects pertaining to south Bengal, which include widening of roads in different districts like Birbhum, Burdwan, Hooghly, East Midnapore, Murshidabad, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas and Nadia.