Nat Highways strength to be raised to 1.5 lakh km: Gadkari

Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari today stressed upon increasing the number of express highways in the country and said the strength of national highways will be raised to 1.5 lakh km by next month.
He said that his ministry was aiming at raising the daily road building to 30 km by March end.
"We witness 5 lakh accidents on roads every year in which 1.50 lakh people die. We have analyzed the reasons behind these accidents. We found the number of vehicles is on the rise whereas there is less infrastructure to complement the surge in vehicle numbers. There is a need for developing new highways in the country," Gadkari said.

The Minister was addressing a gathering here where Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of three highway projects (341 km long) worth Rs 13,802 crore at the Rajiv Gandhi Education City at Rai today.
"We have a road strength of 48 lakh km in the country, out of which 96,000 km are national highways. We will increase the strength of national highways from 96,000 km to 1.50 lakh km by coming December," he said.
He further noted that single lanes will be made to double lanes while two lanes will be turned into four lanes, six lanes and eight lanes.

He said that road projects worth Rs 32,000 crore will be undertaken in Haryana this year.

Gadkari said that Eastern Peripheral expressway would be the first axis controlled project in the country where vehicles would be able to run at a speed of 120 km per hour.
According to the Minister, Delhi will be the biggest gainer with the coming up of both Eastern Peripheral expressway highway and Western Peripheral expressway highways.
"Delhi will be the biggest gainer as traffic problem will ease, level of pollution will come down and number of accidents will drop," he said, adding that states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana will also be benefited with these highway projects.