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Over 4,000 km of rural roads have been constructed using green technology in FY17. The Centre is also aggressively pushing the use of non-conventional materials such as waste plastic, cold mix, geo-textiles, fly ash, iron and copper slag in road construction, said a release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, after a review of infrastructure projects here on Wednesday.
“The highest ever average daily construction rate of 130 km has been achieved for rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). This has led to an addition of 47,400 km of PMGSY roads in 2016-17,” said the release, adding that 11,641 additional habitations have been connected with roads in the same period.
Modi reviewed progress of key infrastructure sectors including roads, railways, airports, ports and digital coal. The review meeting, which lasted for about four-and-a-half hours, was attended by top officials from the PMO, NITI Aayog and all infrastructure Ministries.
Over 26,000 km of four or six-lane national highways have been built in FY17, and the pace is improving, said the release.
In the railways sector, 953 km of new lines were laid during the year, against the target of 400 km. Track electrification of over 2,000 km, and gauge conversion of over 1,000 km was achieved in the same period. More than 1,500 unmanned level crossings have been eliminated.
In the ports sector, projects worth ₹1.37 lakh crore have been taken up for implementation.
In the digital infrastructure sector, 2,187 mobile towers have been installed in districts affected by Left Wing Extremists. In the coal sector, rationalisation of coal linkages and movement yielded an annual saving of over ₹2,500 crore in 2016-17. Noting the decline in coal imports in the last year, the Prime Minister asked for even more vigorous efforts towards coal import substitution, and application of new coal technologies including gasification technology. The Prime Minister called for a consolidated approach to existing projects, and working towards their completion within strict timelines.
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