Central Government to build more roads in a year and renumber National Highways to facilitate easy identification

Government to build more roads in a year than achieved earlier: Kamal Nath
PIB, July 29, 2009
Rajya Sabha

The Government has geared up to launch one of the biggest highways development programme in the country. Replying to the discussions on the working of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry in the Rajya Sabha today, the Minister for Road Transport & Highways Shri kamal Nath said that the National Highways Development Programme would be stepped up so as to achieve the target of 7000 km per year. The Minister said “we will build this year more roads than the total length completed by NDA in its 5 years term”. He said, the Ministry will award road projects for a length of 15,000 km amounting to one lakh crore rupees (20,677 miillion USD) as part of its Annual Work Plan this year. A similar length of roads would also be awarded in the next financial year .Shri Nath said that the work awarded in the first 2-3 years is important as it would determine the success of the highways programme. To achieve the target, he laid stress on the capacity building , both within NHAI and also of the concessionaires, contractors and technical consultants. Terming infrastructure as the biggest challenge in the next decade, he said roads would play an important role in infrastructure development as it affects the lives of all and is an important component of economy.

The Minster while welcoming the suggestions from the members on various issues informed the House that the toll policy would be revised so as to address concerns raised by the members and also to address other issues raised by various stakeholders. On the land acquisition issue, the minister sought the co-operation of the State Chief Ministers to help in speedy land acquisition. He informed the members that separate Land Acquisition Units have been set up to expedite the process and provide just and fair compensation. The Minister, apprising the House about the new initiatives from his Ministry, said that the Ministry has appointed a Consultant to look at the feasibility of 15,600 km of Expressways in the country. This would be in addition to the plans of constructing 1000 km of expressways. The Minister also announced that the Ministry would carry out an exercise of renumbering of the National Highways to facilitate easy identification. Elaborating on this, he said that the highways would be numbered in such a way that the odd and even numbers would specify whether the highway is running from East to West or North to South. He also informed the House that the Government has approved 1200 km of National Highways and 4500 km of State Highways amounting to Rs.7300 crore in the 8 Naxal affected States. He said that more emphasis will be given for the development of less developed States. He informed the House that Rs.200 crores have been earmarked for Jharkhand in this year.