The government is planning to invest 10 lakh crore rupees over the next two years to strengthen highways across the country, with special focus on the Northeast and border areas.
In an interview to a news agency, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said, the Centre is working to transform the country’s infrastructure drastically in the next two years so that it matches the best in the world. He asserted, the government is planning to take up projects to enhance infrastructure in the Northeast where roads will rival those in the United States.
The Minister said, there is an urgent need to augment the road infrastructure in the Northeast given its difficult terrain and proximity to borders with several countries. He said, 784 highway projects will be implemented in the eastern states at an estimated cost of over three lakh seventy thousand crore rupees, covering more than 21 thousand 300 kilometers.
Among them are projects of Road Transport and Highways Ministry, the National Highways Authority of India, and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. Mr Gadkari asserted that in the Northeast, the government is working on projects worth about 1 lakh crore rupees this year itself. He said a mass rapid transport pilot project is underway in Nagpur at a cost of 170 crore rupees. The project involves a 135-seater bus that will run on non-polluting energy sources and is expected to be highly cost-effective.
