In a major strategic and infrastructure move, the West Bengal government has cleared the transfer of seven crucial national highway stretches in the Siliguri Corridor — popularly known as the Chicken Neck Corridor — to central agencies, paving the way for stalled road and railway expansion projects in one of India’s most sensitive regions.
The narrow corridor, barely 20 to 22 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, serves as the only land bridge connecting mainland India to the eight northeastern states. Flanked by Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the north, Bangladesh to the south and lying close to China’s Chumbi Valley, the stretch is widely considered one of India’s most strategically vulnerable zones.
“With this fresh clearance from the Chief Secretary’s office, the central agencies can now immediately resume and push forward with the delayed construction and upgrade works,” officials said.
The handover ends nearly a year-long delay that had stalled development projects across the region. The highway stretches, previously under the state Public Works Department, will now be managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
Under the new arrangement, NHAI will take charge of key stretches including NH-31, NH-33 and NH-312, while NHIDCL will oversee strategically important routes such as the Sevok–Coronation Bridge stretch, the Hasimara–Jaigaon route and the Changrabandha corridor.
Officials said the move is expected to significantly strengthen connectivity across North Bengal, including the vulnerable Chicken Neck region, while also improving links with Bhutan and Bangladesh.
The Chief Secretary’s office, in an official note, said the seven stretches together would “strengthen connectivity to Sikkim, Bhutan and Bangladesh, link the Darjeeling hills, the Dooars and North Bengal with the national highway network.”
It will also 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, said the official note.
The move is also tied to a much larger strategic railway expansion plan in the corridor. The Centre is planning to expand the existing double railway line into a six-track system, including a 40-kilometre underground railway corridor between Teen Mile Haat and Rangapani stations.
The underground section, to be built 20–24 metres below the surface, is designed to shield critical military and supply logistics from potential aerial strikes, artillery attacks and drone warfare.
Security experts have long viewed the Siliguri Corridor as a geopolitical pressure point because any disruption in the narrow strip could potentially isolate nearly 50 million people in Northeast India from the rest of the country.
The latest handover is now expected to accelerate long-pending infrastructure work in the region, which has become increasingly crucial amid rising security concerns and growing connectivity demands in eastern and northeastern India.
Source: India Today
