The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today asked the Road Transport and Highways Ministry to accelerate the programme of converting the single lane national highway to into two lane. He also hoped to achieve the target of building road length of 20 km a day.
Inaugurating the conference on ‘Public-Private Partnership in National Highways’, the Prime Minister said, “At present, there are about 20,000 kms of national highways which have only a single lane. A time-bound programme for widening these roads to two-lane standard would be taken up through turn-key contracts that would ensure speed and cost-effective outcomes.”
He also announced that the Government had been successful in awarding contracts for over 4,800 kms in the last financial year. The Highways Ministry is now ready to award contract for 7,300 kms this year to fulfil the Government’s resolve to build 20 kms a day, he added.
This year, the Government is expecting Rs 50,000 crore investment from the private sector. It is estimated that the Government will earn Rs 10,000 crore as additional revenue from road transport.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.