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He said the NDA government at the Centre is committed to He said the NDA government at the Centre is committed toconstruct five lakh km of national highways in the country infive years. "At present 16 km of NH are being constructed per day inthe country and we are planning to increase it to 20 km perday," he said, adding out of total 2,570 km length of nationalhighway in Arunachal, 653 km have been completed while 1917 kmof NH are under progress. "With improved highway infrastructure in the state,development process will be accelerated,” he said, adding theCentre is contemplating to convert one lakh state highways intonational highways in five years. Terming Arunachal as a "beautiful" state, the UnionMinister said the state with innumerable potential inhorticulture, agriculture and tourism sector could be adeveloped state in future. "Arunachal could be transformed to a major tourismdestination of the country and for this, improvement of roadinfrastructure has been taken up by my ministry," he said,adding the ministry would soon formulate a policy by whichroads in hill states could be protected by using internationalstandard technology. When asked about the proposed 2000-km long road fromTawang to Vijaynagar along the international border, Mandaviyasaid though the road was sanctioned but there remained majorhindrance in land acquisition which is a state subject. On the proposed East-West Industrial corridor fromBrahmakund to Ruksin, he said the road was under "activeconsideration" of the Centre. When his attention was drawn on the vast resources ofmedicinal plants in the state which are yet to be explored,Mandaviya assured to apprise the AYUSH Ministry to do extensiveresearch on the available plants besides setting up Ayurvedicinstitutes in the state. The union minister also asked Chief Secretary ShakuntalaGamlin, who was also present on the occasion, to prepare a listof potential sectors in the state and send to the Centre sothat necessary schemes could be formulated. PTI UPL SUSDIP