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The first construction project under the Assam Mala scheme, the Palashbari-Chandubi two-lane highway, will be completed within a week, according to Kartik Biswas, the executive engineer of South Kamrup Territorial Road Division. “The construction will be completed six months ahead of the stipulated time,� he said. The highway will connect South Kamrup to the Assam-Meghalaya border in West Guwahati. It will cut the travel time from Mirza to Chandubi (32 km) from one and a half hours to 40 minutes. The new highway has been built alongside the river Brahmaputra and stretches from Palashbari to Chandubi. The two-lane highway passes by Mirza, Barihat, Loharghat, Borduar and Muduki. It was planned to be 26 km long, but after protests against two-laning the highway on this particular stretch, Assam Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma called off the construction of a 6-km stretch which has the Borduar Reserve Forest to its north and Mayang Hill Reserve Forest to its south. The protests had erupted back in August after around 2,000 trees which are 100-150 years old were earmarked to be felled for the purpose. The highway has now been expanded to a two-lane only until Muduki. The 6-km stretch beyond Muduki has been kept single-lane and construction has been halted. However, even while constructing the existing stretch, thousands of century-old high value trees were felled. Many high-value trees have been planted again by the officials and villagers, even if their survival rates are fairly low. See also: Steel Slag Roads: Techno-economic and environmental benefitsMinistry starts mandatory training course on highway DPRs