The National Highways Authority of India is all set to start work on Rs 9,000-crore road projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan in the next 3-4 months.

The projects are the 570-km highway project from Kishangarh near Jaipur in Rajasthan to Ahmedabad in Gujarat through Udaipur and six-laning of the Ahmedabad-Baroda highway and Beawar-Pali-Pandwara.

“Bids for these three projects have been received...they are being evaluated,” a Road Ministry official said.

The Ahmedabad-Baroda and Beawar-Pali-Pandwara are six-laning projects worth Rs 2,000 crore each and the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad mega road project is likely to entail an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

NHAI has received 13 bids for the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project, including from reputed international players like Britain’s Balforur Beatty.

In 2009, the then Road Minister Mr Kamal Nath had announced that the Government would invite bids for the construction of nine mega road projects, entailing an investment of around Rs 5,000 crore each.

The Government has set a target for constructing 35,000 km of highways in the next five years under the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP), which will require an estimated investment of about $60 billion (Rs 2,79,000). Of this, $40 billion (Rs 1,86,000) will come from the private sector.

The country at present has a network of 71,000 km of National Highways.

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