MINISTER MAKES DEMAND AFTER GADKARI ANNOUNCES ROAD WIDENING Deb renews call for six-lane NH31 in Siliguri

An excavator peels off the damaged stretch of a road overbridge on NH 31 in Siliguri on Sunday. Picture by Passang Yolmo here on Sunday. 

TT, 29 July 2019, Siliguri: Bengal tourism minister Gautam Deb has renewed his demand for the construction of a six-lane road as part of NH31 from Matigara to Salugara.

He had raised the demand around five years ago when he was the minister of north Bengal development department.

Deb also touched on a couple of other issues plaguing the city, a move that is being seen as an attempt to try and revive Trinamul's support base in Siliguri.

"We were the first to de- mand that for a hassle free traffic movement, six-laning of NH-31 through Darjeeling More is required. We took the initiative and necessary survey regarding land acquisition for the proposed road was also done by the state. Interestingly, the central government did not take any initiative then. As the centre did not allocate any fund for the project, we have not acquired any land so far. But given the present state of affairs at Darjeeling More that gets crammed with traffic every day, movement and given a, we have decided to organise a `dharna' and raise the demand again," said Deb.

The minister's assertion follows a recent reply of Union minister Nitin Gadkari at the Parliament. On July 25, Gadkari, in reply to a question by Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, has said that they are preparing the detailed project report to develop and widen the stretch of NH 31 from Shivmandir to Sevoke army cantonment ­ located in northwest and northeast ends of the city.

Also, Bista has recently met Gadhkari, and has demanded a flyover through Darjeeling More into the city.

Deb, who is also the president of Trinamul's Darjeeling district (plains) committee, said he will soon approach Firhad Hakim, the state minister for urban development, requesting him to change the name of Airview More, one of the prominent crossings of Siliguri, to Gandhi Chowk.

"We have decided to pay our tribute to the Father of the Nation on occasion of his 150th birth anniversary. We will install his statue at the Airview More and will also approach the urban development department to re-name it as Gandhi Chowk," the minister said.

Mayor Asok Bhattacharya had also come up with a similar proposal recently and had said the name of the crossing needs to be changed in the name of Mahatma Gandhi..