The Centre’s decision to take over the 52.1km stretch of the National Highway 10, which runs between Sevoke and Rangpo, from the Bengal government’s public works department (PWD) for the development and maintenance has sparked a controversy.

The move came after the state government had sent proposals worth over ₹400 crore to the Centre between July and October to repair the highway, which were not entertained.

Sources aware of the development said that the state PWD — which had been maintaining the NH10 since 2016 — had sent a series of proposals in the past few months to restore stretches of the important highway that connects Sikkim with Siliguri since the road was badly damaged by heavy rainfall on June 14 this year.

The NH10 is considered to be one of the most important highways in the country as it connects Sikkim with the mainland and also assumes significance in terms of the country’s border security as it leads to the Indo-China border in Sikkim.

Documents available with The Telegraph show that the state PWD in several phases had sent proposals worth ₹418 crore to the ministry of road, transport and highways between July and October this year.

“But the Centre only sanctioned ₹14.13 crore. As the Centre decided to take over the stretch without sanctioning the funds required for the restoration of damaged stretches, it left an impression that the state PWD was not capable of maintaining the highway. The state PWD is left embarrassed for no fault of its own,” said a senior Nabanna official.

According to sources, the state PWD was maintaining the “unstable” highway that is often rendered inaccessible to vehicular traffic because of frequent landslides, particularly during the rainy season.

“In October 2023, the road was badly damaged because of the flash floods of the Teesta river. The state PWD repaired it properly as the Centre had sanctioned ₹21 crore without much delay. But all pleas for funds fell on deaf ears after the road condition again deteriorated because of heavy erosion carving away stretches of the road following the heavy rainfall in June this year,” said an official.

He added that even though the Centre did not sanction the majority of the proposals, the state government had carried out some work on its own to ensure that light passenger vehicles could be allowed to move through the road.

According to the documents available, the state PWD had sent proposals worth ₹39.31 crore to undertake repair work at 41 locations along the stretch on July 19 after the road was heavily damaged following the heavy rainfall in mid-June.

“Of these proposals, the Centre had sanctioned ₹14.13 crore… The state PWD could undertake some basic repair work to allow light passenger cars to ply on the highway. But as other proposals were not sanctioned, the road could not be made operational properly allowing heavy vehicles to move through it,” said an official.

After some basic work was carried out, the state PWD had sent proposals worth ₹184.77 crore to repair and improve the road conditions in 11 spots in August this year. But no fund was sanctioned by the Centre.

Later, in October the state PWD sent proposals worth ₹121.85 crore to undertake work in some stretches so that fresh damage could be avoided in the next monsoon.

Moreover, the Centre did not approve DPRs worth ₹73 crore that were prepared to undertake repairs in 15 spots even though initially it had asked the state to float the tenders, sources said.

A senior official said the state PWD should have been given a chance to prove that it could undertake the repair and improvement work on one of the most vulnerable highways in the country.

“If the state PWD failed to undertake the work after getting the required funds, the Centre could have easily taken away the stretch from the state. It is unfair to take away the stretch from state PWD without giving it a chance. It hurts the morale of the engineers who worked hard to maintain the road,” said a senior Nabanna official.

The BJP has already started projecting the issue of National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) taking over the maintenance of the NH10 as a failure of the state government.

“I realised a long time ago that the WB PWD lacks the expertise and financial resources to keep an important highway connecting the border regions of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Dooars and Sikkim to the rest of India. I have said time and again that the WB PWD should hand over the portion of NH10 they are controlling to NHIDCL, so that the people from our region too can get access to better roads,” wrote BJP MP from Darjeeling, Raju Bista, in his X handle.

Countering Bista, a state minister said the decision was intentional and done to tarnish the image of the state government.

“The BJP-led Centre always tries to deprive Bengal. In this case, it has deprived Bengal by not allocating funds to repair the road. The entire move is politically motivated,” said the minister.