Highway project funding hiked to Rs 2,22,000 crore.

BANGALORE: After the success with green and white revolutions, India is now fostering a similar exercise in the roads sector, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday as he announced a decision to enlarge funding to the National Highway project to Rs 2,22,000 crore.

The UPA government has "speeded up construction and development of national highways... We now have a road programme National Highway Development Project costing Rs 2,20,000 crore to be implemented in 7 to 8 years," he said, laying the foundation stone for the Bangalore-Electronics City elevated highway project.

The Bangalore project is expected to take the pressure off the city's woefully inadequate road infrastructure.

"We are six-laning the Bangalore-Nelamangala stretch of NH-4, including a 4-km long elevated corridor... four-laning the Bangalore-Devanahalli section of NH-7....Bangalore-Kolar section of NH-4 is being four-laned," he said.

Noting that the country is witnessing a road revolution, similar to the green and white revolutions of the past, Singh said the NHDP, which originally had two phases, has been expanded to include seven phases covering the entire country.

"To NHDP-I and NHDP-II, we have added NHDP-III under which 11,000 kms of high traffic density highways connecting state capitals and important centres of tourism and economic activity are being developed.

"And most importantly, these are being developed largely through public private partnership," Singh said.

 The investment on this phase was Rs 55,000 crore, he said.