'Pace of construction of NH has doubled in last 9 months'

The Centre today said that the pace of construction of National Highways has doubled in the last nine months to 10.3 km a day.
Union Minister of State for Shipping and Road Transport, Pon Radhakrishnan held a meeting here to review the progress of Central road projects in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala with officials and other stakeholders.
He said "during the past nine months, the pace of construction of National Highways in the country has improved to 10.3 km per day as against 5.1 km per day achieved during the year 2013-14," an official release quoting the review meeting said.

Further, the Central Government has taken a decision to close down 62 Toll Plazas in the country where either the capital cost had been recovered or the concession period was over, it said.
The Minister also expressed concern over the 'slow progress' of the ongoing projects in Tamil Nadu by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), consisting nearly 1,000 km with an outlay of about Rs 7,000 crore and hoped for the state's cooperation in completing them.
While observing that the issue of Elevated Road for providing dedicated road connectivity to Chennai Port is embroiled in court case, he said that both NHAI and the state government should make efforts to reach an out of court settlement so that the work can be resumed.

He also expressed the Centre's willingness to declare and upgrade the entire East Coast Road (ECR), connecting Chennai and Kanniyakumari as a National Highway if the Tamil Nadu government made necessary proposal.

Of the 738.4 km stretch, 153 km was under NHAI and the rest with the state government, the statement said.
The Minister also said that new projects for widening and improving 430 km of National Highways at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore have been approved in the last six months for Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Further, Rs 390 crore has been sanctioned to the Tamil Nadu under Central Road Fund and two new projects, under Inter State Road Connectivity Scheme, Kanniyakumari (TN) to Palaya Uchakkadai (Kerala), the 71.5 km and Parasseri - Monday Market - Pudukkadai, worth Rs 150 crore have also been sanctioned, he said.

He also announced that Rs 112.08 crore has been sanctioned for Puducherry from CRF in 2014-15.
An amount of Rs 122 crore has been sanctioned from the central funds for Kerala during the current year, he said.