NHAI to monetise 12 highway stretches of over 6,000 km before 2024: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget on Saturday proposed that the National Highways Authority of India will monetise at least 12 highway stretches before 2024.

While presenting the Union Budget 2020-21, the Finance minister said that Accelerated development of highways will be undertaken.

"This will include the development of 2500 Km access control highways, 9000 Km of economic corridors, 2000 Km of coastal and land port roads and 2000 Km of strategic highways. Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and two other packages to be completed by 2023. Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway also be started. It is proposed to monetise at least 12 lots of highway bundles of over 6000 Km before 2024."

Highlighting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement in the Independence Day Speech 2019, that Rs. 100 lakh crore would be invested on infrastructure over the next five years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget on Saturday said: "As a follow-up measure, I had launched the National Infrastructure Pipeline on December 31, 2019, of Rs 103 lakh crore. It consists of more than 6500 projects across sectors and are classified as per their size and stage of development," said Sitharaman.

The Finance Minister further said that the National Skill Development Agency will give special thrust to infrastructure-focused skill development opportunities and that a huge employment opportunity exists for India's youth in construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure.

The Union Budget proposed to set up a project preparation facility for infrastructure projects. This programme would actively involve young engineers, management graduates and economists from our Universities.

The Budget also proposed to direct all infrastructure agencies of the government to involve youth-power in start-ups.

Sitharaman also proposed A National Logistics Policy, to be released soon and this would clarify the roles of the Union Government, State Governments and key regulators and create a single-window e-logistics market and focus on generation of employment, skills and making MSMEs competitive.