Gadkari sets 100 days to clear pending highway projects

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has set a deadline of 100 days to clear highway projects pending due to various reasons.

The minister, who reviewed the highway projects soon after taking over the charge, set the deadline for projects which were pending for past several years mostly due to delay in land acquisition, not getting green clearances or financial problems.

Of the 403 stuck projects in 2014, only 25 to 30 projects were left without clearances including IL&FS. These projects would be addressed in 100 days, a senior official in the ministry said. The IL&FS, with many of its defaulting subsidiaries, has put the projects handed over to it in peril.

The ministry has also set the target to build to 40 km of highways per day from the current 30 km per day.

The ministry has identified about 8,000 blackspots based on major accidents that happened in the last three years on national highways, in order to minimise road accidents, which will be tackled soon. Besides, the works would be speeded up for installation of modified crash barriers along hilly roads to prevent vehicles falling off highways.

The ministry is trying to get the toll income which at present goes to the government kitty, to pump into highway building. A plan is being worked out to pay back about Rs 400 to 500 crore out of the nearly Rs 1,100 crore toll collected annually from state-run buses.

Abolition of the inter-state tax is a major reform pushed by the ministry, to reduce inter-state bus fares.