45 kms of national highways to be built daily in FY19: Gadkari

The government has set a target of constructing 45 km of national highways per day during FY19, up from about 27 km per day built during the last year, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced on Tuesday.

The total construction target for 2018-19 has been set at 16,420 km, of which 9,700 km will be constructed by the Road Transport Ministry, 6,000 km by the National Highway Authority of India and 720 km by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

In comparison, 9,829 km length of national highways were constructed during 2017-18. While Gadkari had set the target of 40 km per day, the total highway construction could account to 27 km per day during the year.

Also, the government has fixed a target of awarding works for around 20,000 km length of national highways during FY19, about 25 per cent higher than the 17,055 km awarded in the preceding year, Gadkari said after he held a review meeting of officials of his ministry in which the state wise status of projects were reviewed.

He said his ministry was making all out efforts for improving and strengthening the highways network in the country.

"This year the focus would be more on construction, but the award would be more than last year," he said.

--IANS

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