Eight major road stretches, including Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Agra sections will be converted into world-class express highways in the next five years in a bid to strengthen the country’s road infrastructure.
The Centre has approved eight stretches for upgradation, which include — 249-km Delhi-Chandigarh section of NH-1 and NH-22; 334-km Bengaluru-Chennai section of NH-4; 261-km Delhi-Jaipur section of NH-8, and 277-km Kolkata-Dhanbad stretch of NH-2, 66-km Delhi-Meerut section of NH-58; 200-km Delhi-Agra section of NH-2 and 135 km of Eastern Peripheral Expressway.
“Feasibility studies of above projects are in different stages. The work shall be taken up after finalisation of feasibility study and completion of land acquisition activity,” said Pon Radhakrishnan, MoS for Road Transport and Highways in reply to the lok Sabha.
“Government of India had earlier approved a plan for constructing 1,000 km of expressways under NHDP PHASE-VI at a cost of `16,680 crore on DBFOT (design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis),” he said.
In a separate reply to the lower House, he also said that construction of a six-lane expressway is envisaged at Centre with four-lane highways on both sides from Delhi/Uttar Pradesh border section of NH-24 for which bids have been invited on hybrid annuity mode. last month, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said work on ten expressway projects would start soon and once completed they would not only reduce travel time between major cities but would also contribute significantly towards the economic growth.
“All these express highways are going to be world-class matching the quality and specifications in advanced nations and once completed would result in huge savings in fuel cost,” he had said.