Kolkata: After months of tussle, the Centre will now take charge of some strategic and vital stretches of highway in West Bengal, many of them passing through the narrow and vulnerable “Chicken’s Neck” corridor, the solitary land link between the northeastern states and the rest of the country.
The new Suvendu Adhikari-led government in West Bengal has cleared the handover of seven stretches of national highway to the National Highways Authority of India and the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.
This is not only crucial for infrastructure development – such as road repairs and widening – and trade but also defence and national security.
Of the seven stretches to be handed over, five pass through the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken’s Neck, a 60 km tract that is barely 20-22 km wide at its narrowest and is wedged between Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, as reported by The Telegraph.
This corridor is considered extremely strategic as China lies to the north beyond Sikkim and Bhutan. Intelligence inputs suggest that adversaries have been eyeing the corridor to cut off the northeastern states from the rest of the country.
There have been repeated demands for wider and more fortified highways in the region, to allow faster movement of heavy equipment, both to Sikkim and Sukna, near Siliguri, where the Army’s
33 Corps or Trishakti Corps is headquartered.
“The government of West Bengal has accorded in-principle approval for handing over seven stretches of National Highways from NH wing of the State Public Works Department to NHAI and NHIDCL,” a press note issued by the chief secretary’s office said.
“Proposals had been pending with the state government for nearly a year “despite repeated requests” from the central agencies and “works on these stretches stood stalled in the absence of formal handover”, it further stated.
The Mamata Banerjee government had been relentlessly attacked by the BJP over the delay in these stretches’ handover to the central agencies.
Illegal immigration from Bangladesh – which it accused the Trinamool Congress government of facilitating – had, by changing the demography in north Bengal’s border districts, further compromised the Siliguri Corridor’s security, the BJP had alleged.
The handover decision could fast-track long-pending expansion, strengthening and repairs of highways considered critical for defence logistics, trade, tourism and regional connectivity, officials said.
NH10, in particular, has remained vulnerable to monsoon damage, triggering repeated disruptions in supplies to Sikkim. NH110, connecting Darjeeling, has for years suffered chronic landslides, subsidence and traffic bottlenecks.
“Taken together, these seven stretches strengthen connectivity to Sikkim, Bhutan and Bangladesh, link the Darjeeling hills, the Dooars and North Bengal with the national highway network, improve the Bihar-Bengal corridor through Malda and Murshidabad, and upgrade the road spine running through Murshidabad, Nadia and North 24-Parganas up to the Indo-Bangladesh border at Ghojadanga,” the pressnote said.