Government to spend Rs100,000 crore on National Highways
30 Jul 2009
Unveiling a massive national highway development programme, the union road transport minister Kamal Nath said yeserday that the government plans to spend Rs100,000 crore on National Highways to further augment the road network across country.
While answering a question in Rajya Sabha, the minister said the highway development programme will be stepped up to achieve 7,000 km of roads constructed each year.
Kamal Nath said that the government would award 15,000km of road projects during the current fiscal year amounting Rs100,000 crore, and another 15,000km of road contracts next year.
The minister said awarding such large contracts would be required to achieve a yearly target of 7,000 km of roads, or 20 km a day, and emphasised the role of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as well as concessionaires, contractors and technical consultants for successful completion of the projects.
"We will build this year more roads than the total length completed by NDA in its five years term," the minister said.
Currently, NHAI's arterial network comprises 70,548 km linking all major regions of the country. Although it is only about 2 per cent of the country's total road network, it carries approximately 40 per cent of the road traffic.
