Gujarat will get investments worth Rs 12,000 crore as a result of Highway Ministry's decision to convert 1,200 km of state highways as national highways, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced here today. He said that such road development will improve tribal regions of the State.
"I was in Varanasi along river Ganga yesterday and am now in Bharuch along Narmada here," said Modi as he dedicated a bridge on river Narmada to the nation here today. Modi was in Varanasi to campaign for the Uttar Pradesh elections, while Gujarat is slated to face elections this year.
The newly constructed 1.34 km bridge on river Narmada has been funded by National Highways Authority of India, and built by Larsen and Toubro. The bridge is four laned and has been built with a cost of Rs 379 crore on an engineering procurement construction basis in 34 months. The project will improve the connectivity between North and South Gujarat, and will improve the state GDP.
Earlier, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the bridge project, which was stuck after its award during the UPA regime, was terminated and re-awarded at a lower cost.
With this, Bharuch now has three bridges, of which two are old. The four-lane bridge is the first longest one in Gujarat, as well as in the entire country.
Gadkari said this was one of the first few "stuck projects" for which he received a request from Gujarat Chief Minister seeking faster construction. The project had been awarded to HCC on a public private partnership mode, which had to be terminated. It was subsequently awarded to Larsen and Toubro on an engineering procurement construction basis. Prior to this, the other two bridges saw huge traffic jams.
The four lane bridge is a part of a project to widen a 6.7 km section of Ahmedabad-Mumbai to six-lanes. Of the 6.7 km, a two km section -- which will also house the toll plaza -- is delayed due to land acquisition. Tolling for the project will start after it was completed by May this year.
Stressing on the BJP governments ability to complete projects on time, He ‘said that had the UP State government handed over projects to the Centre, the unfinished projects could have been completed.
Prime Minister Modi who also dedicated a petrochemical project of OPAL at Dahej, said the project is capable of creating up to 8 lakh jobs. "Dahej is not just the pride of Bharuch, but it is also the pride of India," he said.
Gadkari added that the ports of shipping ministry which had registered a profit of Rs 6,000 crore last year are expected to record profit of Rs 7,000 crore this year.
Speaking about a vision to have port-led development, the Prime Minister said that the country has 1,300 islands, and some of which are bigger than Singapore, can also be developed as cities