Gadkari rues hurdles faced in country's road projects

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari expressed regret in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, over hurdles like land acquisition and environment clearance faced by various road projects, saying the country must have a positive approach towards development.

Gadkari also asked all MPs to remain aware about road projects in their respective constituencies and help in resolving problems coming on the way of constructing roads and bridges.

"Everyone says 'stop the work'. No one says 'do the work'. The country has to have a positive approach and attitude towards development projects," he said during the Question Hour.

Describing the process of acquiring land and environment clearance as the major hurdles, the Union road transport and highways minister said environment and development have to go together.

"I am pro-environment. But environment and development have to go side by side," he said.

The minister said the government of India had approved Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I in October 2017, with an aggregate length of about 34,800 km (including 10,000 km residual NHDP stretches) at an estimated outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore for development of various road projects.

The projects include about 9,000 km of economic corridors, about 6,000 km of inter-corridor and feeder roads, about 5,000 km of national corridors efficiency improvements, about 2,000 km of border and international connectivity roads, about 2,000 km of coastal and port connectivity roads, and about 800 km of expressways.

Gadkari said the development of highway stretches is taken up post finalisation of alignment, cost estimates, land acquisition requirement etc., based on outcome of DPR/ feasibility study, project viability, inter-se-priority and availability of funds.