Govt clears Rs 40,000-cr road projects

Majority of these projects are located in Jammu & Kashmir

The ministry of road transport and highways has approved road projects worth about Rs 40,000 crore, besides setting a target of building 30 km of roads a day from 2016.

At a meeting on Monday, minister Nitin Gadkari reviewed about 250 projects, worth Rs 60,000 crore. “These projects were mainly stuck due to issues related to land acquisition and environment and forest clearance issues. These stalled projects will be up and running in the next three months,” the minister said at a conference on Tuesday.

The approved projects include Rs 20,000-crore highway projects in Jammu & Kashmir, Rs 15,000-crore road-building projects in the Northeast, a Rs 6,000-crore road network in Uttarakhand and the realignment of roads in Himachal Pradesh.

Gadkari said, “The Jammu & Kashmir projects include two-laning and four-laning of national highways in the state and some road projects in Leh and Ladakh…Currently, average construction is about three km a day. After two years, we are targeting building 30 km a day.”

At Monday’s meeting, Gadkari sought a performance audit of the Border Roads Organisation, which built and maintained strategic roads across the country. He said the government would build these roads by awarding engineering, procurement and construction contracts.

Gadkari, who also holds the shipping, rural development, panchayati raj and drinking water and sanitation portfolios, said he would head a group to review the progress of the civil aviation and railway ministries, along with those of roads and ports, on a monthly basis. “The principal secretary to the prime minister and the Cabinet secretary will also be part of that group, the first meeting of which will be held in the next 10 days,” he said.

In a separate development, India and Myanmar have signed a memorandum of understanding for a cross-border bus service between Imphal in Manipur and Mandalay in Myanmar.