Centre eyeing expansion of traffic-dense state highways, says Nitin Gadkari

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said his Ministry is working on a scheme to take over state highways having high-traffic density for expansion.

"A state highway will be expanded into a four or six lane road by the Centre and toll will be collected for 25 years before handing the asset back to the state," he said while addressing an event here.

The money invested for a particular highway's expansion into a 4-6 lane carriageway can be recovered in 12-13 years itself, he said.

The minister listed a slew of projects being undertaken, including 75 access controlled expressways across the country which will ensure faster movement of goods and people across the country.

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Recently Gadkari said his target is to construct 60 kilometres of highway per day.

India's pace of building national highways nearly halved in the first six months of this financial year to 19.44 kilometres a day from the record 37 km per day constructed in fiscal year 2021, according to official data.

The pace of highway construction was at 28.64 km a day in 2021-22, amid the pandemic-related disruptions and a longer-than-usual monsoon in some areas of the country. The pace of NH constructions in the country had touched a record 37 km per day in 2020-21.

The Centre has awarded 4,092 kms of highway projects during April-September this year, lower than 4,609 km in the comparable year-earlier period. New Delhi has set a target of constructing 12,000 km of national highways in this fiscal year that ends March 31, 2023.

India aims to have a 200,000-km national highway network by 2024-25. This requires building 20,000 km of national highways every year for the next three years. The target includes 34,800 km of Bharatamala highways to improve connectivity of national highways as well.

Till March 31, 2022, the road transport ministry has completed 1,41,190 km of national highways.

In her FY23 budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pledged to add 25,000 km to the national highway net-work in FY23. This, however, includes new construction, widening works, and converting state highways into national highways.