Better late than never

Lane-counting to measure road length should have been done earlier

There was much to cheer during the media interaction of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday. The minister announced that in 2017-18, fresh construction of national highways increased 20 per cent over the preceding year. For a country struggling to create new employment opportunities, this is good news. Mr Gadkari also announced that some key projects were running well ahead of schedule. For instance, construction work for the Rs 44-billion Eastern Peripheral Expressway is likely to be completed in just 500 days, as against the targeted 910 days. This is expected to reduce pollution and