India Eco Summit: Govt to award road projects worth Rs 30k cr

The government is planning to bid out six mega road projects entailing a total investment of Rs 30,000 crore across the country.

"We will be bidding out shortly the mega project in the next four to six weeks, we should have the first mega project of about $1 billion (Rs 5,000 crore)," Transport Minister Kamal Nath told reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here today.

The six mega projects would be given out in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The minister had earlier indicated that these mega projects would cost $1 billion each and be developed at various places across India.

Nath further said that Expressways Authority of India would be set up next year to look at specific needs of developing expressways in the country.

"We have already set up a division for expressways. Next year we are going to set a separate expressway authority. Expressway is the next big thing on our plate," Nath said.

The Minister expressed optimism that the road construction activity would touch 8-9 km per day-mark in the country next month and the target of achieving 20 km per day would be met by March 2010.