Govt to construct 1,000-km expressway at Rs 16,680 cr

Government will construct 1,000 km of expressways under its flagship road building programme NHDP at a cost of Rs 16,680 crore, Parliament was informed today.
"Government of India has approved a plan for constructing 1,000 km of expressways under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase VI at a cost of Rs 16,680 crore on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
The main criteria for selection of expressway corridors will be the traffic volume and it was approved that the highest density corridor i.E. Vadodara-Mumbai Corridor (400 km) to be given top priority and considered for feasibility study, the Minister said.

It was also decided that remaining 600 km will be selected out of the routes identified on the basis of traffic volume.
"The high density corridors under NHDP Phase VI are - Vadodara-Mumbai corridor (400 km) in Gujarat and Maharashtra, Delhi-Meerut (66 km) on NH 58 in Delhi and UP, Bangalore-Chennai (334 km) on NH 4 in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu...
"...Delhi-Jaipur (261 km) on NH 8 in Delhi and Rajasthan, Delhi-Chandigarh (249 km) on NH 1 and NH 22 (now changed to Delhi, Punjab and J&K, Kolkata-Dhanbad (277 km) on NH 2 in West Bengal and Jharkhand and Delhi-Agra (200 km) on NH 2 in Delhi and UP," Gadkari said.

Out of 66 km length of Delhi-Meerut Expressway, 30.63 km has already been awarded in 2 packages and contract agreement is executed, he said.
In addition, the government has approved to take up one more expressway - Eastern Peripheral Expressway - for a length of 135 km in 6 packages, the Minister added.