Ministry looks to Japanese Funds for highway projects in Northeast

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is trying to bring in Japanese funds for projects in the North East that had difficulty in attracting private sector investments in the past. These projects include highway stretches in States such as Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya - in some cases they lie close to the Myanmar and Bangladesh border - as well as bridge projects over the Brahmaputra in Assam. The ministry will seek assistance from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan’s official financial assistance arm, for the projects. The Highways Ministry is also working with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop and expand India’s road network from the North-East into Myanmar.