Government to construct highways at 30km/day pace
The government is going to reach the 30-kilometre per day target at a gradual pace. It has plans of laying highways at 17-18 kilometres per day by April, and thereon it will take it beyond 20 kilometres in coming year till it reaches the 30-kilometre target.
The government has set a target of constructing 30 kilometres of highways each day, 17 kilometres more than the current pace of 13 kilometres per day, a TOI report has said.
The government is going to reach the 30-kilometre per day target at a gradual pace. It has plans of laying highways at 17-18 kilometres per day by April, and thereon it will take it beyond 20 kilometres in coming year till it reaches the 30-kilometre target.
Reports have said that the road and highways ministry has acquired 1,620 kilometres for the construction of roads, adding that, with the Land Acquisition Bill out of the Parliament till next session, the worries of the people have been resolved and they are willing for taking the compensation.
Earlier, the Transport ministry has faced problems in getting land for the highways as the compensation prices were sky-rocketed, mainly on the back of new Land Acquisition Bill. The cost of land were reported to have gone up as high as six times since 2011.
Also, the government has plans to transform the National Highways into green corridors, and its likely to launch a Green Highways Policy soon, which is supposed to cover 96,000-kilometres network of NHs.
'Green Fund' , the percentage amount of highway budget that will be used for green corridor, is the brainchild of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Apart from minimising the pollution, the policy will create huge number of jobs and in turn contribute significantly to the economic growth.
Recently, the private firms have shown interest in the highway sector. On September 24, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) has bagged a Rs 1,783.42-crore contract from NHAI for construction of a highway in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).Considering the landscape, that is one of the major challenges for the ministry and engineering as well.
On the same day, construction and engineering major Gammon India got a Rs 1,708 crore project from the for widening of an important stretch of National Highways 1A in Jammu & Kashmir under government's flagship road building programme NHDP.