Foothills Road: NFHRCC wants Rs 282 cr phase 2 orders issued now

The Nagaland Foothills Road Coordination Committee (NFHRCC) has asked the state government to issue second-phase work orders for the Foothills Road immediately and spend the remaining Rs 282.27 crore during the current working season, accusing it of a "lack of political will" on the 14-year-old project.

In a press statement reported by The Morung Express on Friday, the committee said that if the work orders are not issued despite approval, the government owes the public an explanation.

The project and the money

• The Foothills Road is planned as a 395.9 km route along Nagaland's border foothills, from Khelma in Peren district to Tizit in Mon district.
• Work began in 2013. According to the committee, land was given free of compensation and Naga political groups agreed not to levy taxes on it.
• Rs 430.77 crore was approved under the Centre's Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) in 2024-25.
• Rs 148.5 crore of that has been used in the first phase, leaving Rs 282.27 crore that the committee wants spent on phase two this season.

The NFHRCC alleged that the second phase, which it said should have been issued in 2025-26, has been "deliberately ignored" by the government.

Expressway comparison

To make its point, the committee compared the project with the 1,386 km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which runs through six states, was started in 2019 and is now nearing completion. In Nagaland, it said, "almost all the projects" fail to see the light of day.

It argued that the Foothills Road would on its own lift the state's economy, and warned that people should not become complacent just because the project has been announced. It also said it was "very painful" that elected representatives were, in its view, trying to stall or avoid key infrastructure, and warned that if the responsible authorities fail in their duty, there would "certainly be noise and objection from the public".

'Land of Festivals' is not an answer

The committee said calling Nagaland a "Land of Festivals" does not answer the problem of uneven development. While it said it was not against festivals, it asked the government not to lose sight of the hardship faced by people in areas that lack roads.

Why it matters

The Foothills Road is meant to link Nagaland's districts along the Assam border without routing traffic through Assam, and has long been seen as a lifeline for remote foothill villages. The state government had not publicly responded to the committee's statement at the time of writing. The complaint comes the same week that Noklak students called off a road agitation only after a PWD pledge, underlining how road delays have become a flashpoint across the state.