Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said that the Centre would spend Rs 50000 crore on road projects that include 916 kilometer stretch of the new national highway (NH). He said that the people who would travel to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh would reach their destinations much faster after the construction of the new ring road in Delhi is over. “When the road project was being conceptualised PM asked me to build the ring road in 400 days. I am confident we would conform to the deadline,” he said.
Similarly, the all -weather road, unveiled by PM on Tuesday, will be completed by April 2018 despite the deadline expiring by 2020, he said.
“Currently, NH length stretches over 96,000 kilometers while 52 lakh kilometers are connected with link roads across the country. Notably, five lakh accidents happen every year and 1.5 lakh people die in them. To avert mishaps, we are going to increase NH length to 2,00,000 kilometers. Once things are completed, 80 percent of the traffic would ply on NHs. Out of this, 983 km stretch would be built while the remaining part would be upgraded.
Projects worth Rs 300 crore have been sanctioned. Sixty one projects worth Rs 6126 crore would begin shortly. My ministry would spend Rs 26,000 crore to finish things,” Gadkari said.
He also said that he had approved all the demands made by the five MPs from the state –Union minister of state and Almora MP Ajay Tamta, former CMs- Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri and Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank- all MPs and Tehri MP Mala Rajya lakshmi Shah.
Talking about the technology to be used, Gadkari said that they had procured stone- cutting machines endowed with the latest technology from Australia. “The tools would be brought to the country by Mi-17 helicopters,” the minister said.