Centre planning INR 10L cr investment to rewire highways, NE
Centre planning INR 10L cr investment to rewire highways, NE roads will match US standards: Nitin Gadkari
The Centre is planning to invest Rs 10 lakh crore over the next two years to strengthen highways across the country, with special focus on the Northeast- Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said
NEW DELHI — The Centre is planning to invest INR 10 lakh crore over the next two
years to strengthen highways across the country, with special focus on the
Northeast, where roads will rival those in the US, Road Transport and Highways
Minister Nitin Gadkari said.
In an interview to PTI, he said the Centre is working to
transform the country's infrastructure drastically in the next two years so
that it matches the best in the world.
"We plan to take up projects worth INR 10 lakh crore in
the next two years to strengthen highways across the country, with special
emphasis on enhancing infrastructure in the Northeast and the border areas. In
the coming two years, highways in the Northeast will be on a par with US
roads," Gadkari said.
There is an urgent need to augment the road infrastructure
in the Northeast given its difficult terrain and proximity to borders, he said.
"It is our endeavour to transform the country's
infrastructure drastically so that it matches with the best in the world,"
he said, maintaining that works are underway in all states, including
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and
Delhi.
Gadkari said 784 highway projects are going to be
implemented in the eastern states at an estimated cost of INR 3,73,484 crore,
covering 21,355 km.
Among them are projects of the Ministry of Road Transport
and Highways, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and the National
Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL), he said.
"We currently have projects worth INR 57,696 crore in
Assam, and about Rs 90,000 crore in Bihar. We're also undertaking projects
worth over Rs 42,000 crore in West Bengal, about Rs 53,000 crore in Jharkhand,
and around Rs 58,000 crore in Odisha," Gadkari said.
"In the Northeast, except Assam, we are undertaking
projects worth about INR 1 lakh crore this year itself," he said.
Gadkari said a mass rapid transport pilot project is
underway in Nagpur at a cost of INR 170 crore.
"The project involves a 135-seater bus that will run on
non-polluting energy sources and is expected to be highly cost-effective. If
successful, it will be replicated on important routes across the country,
including the Delhi-Jaipur stretch, under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
model," he said.
The minister said the length of the National Highway network
has expanded significantly, growing from 91,287 km in March 2014 to 1,46,204 km
at present, with a significant improvement in standards.
The proportion of national highways below two lanes has
dropped sharply -- from 30 per cent to just 9 per cent of the total network, he
said.
In 2024–25, NHAI constructed 5,614 km of national highways,
surpassing its target of 5,150 km.
