Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday that the central government will soon launch a Rs 61,500 crore, 630‑km highway that will connect Siliguri in West Bengal to Guwahati in Assam and Shillong in Meghalaya. The first 400‑km stretch between Siliguri and Guwahati alone is projected to cost Rs 30,000 crore, and its alignment is still pending approval.
The corridor’s second leg will link Jorabat in Guwahati with Barapani in Shillong, cutting the current 100‑km distance to 66 km and slashing travel time from 2½ hours to about one hour. The third segment, a greenfield 165‑km stretch from Shillong to Silchar, is set to reduce the current 230‑km journey to 165 km, halving the travel time from eight hours to roughly four.
Gadkari also highlighted the parallel Gorakhpur‑Siliguri expressway, which will eventually provide a high‑speed link between Uttar Pradesh and the North East. In Assam alone, the ministry is overseeing 265 projects spanning 4,700 km at a cost of nearly Rs 2 lakh crore, with an additional 31 projects covering 1,470 km slated for Rs 92,000 crore.
Over the past decade, the government has poured a cumulative Rs 6.11 lakh crore into North‑East development, expanding the national highway network from 10,905 km in 2014 to 16,207 km by March 2025. Rural road construction under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana added 46,296 km at an expenditure of Rs 47,279 crore.
Work orders for the Shillong‑Silchar leg are expected in November, after which the Ministry will commence earthworks once alignment approvals are secured. The new corridor promises to reduce travel times dramatically and is poised to spur economic integration across the region, with further high‑speed connectivity to Uttar Pradesh on the horizon.