Indian government to award highway contracts worth Rs 3 lakh crore

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Government of India intends on issuing highway contracts worth Rs 3 lakh crore by May, 2017. The Government is also planning to increase the length of the national highways by two lakh kilometre by August this year. Gadkari also said that by the end of April 2016, all toll plazas will be electronic.

"Creating a world class infrastructure in highways is the top priority of the Government. We will sign highways contracts worth Rs 3 lakh crore between May 2016 and May 2017. We have a road length of 52 lakh kilometres in the country, but unfortunately the length of our national highways carries 40 per cent of the total road traffic. We have already declared 1.52 lakh kilometres of national highways and will take the length to 2 lakh km in the next three months," Gadkari said while addressing an ICC conference.

Gadkari said that currently 20km of highway is being added to the existing network every day. He said that the target is to reach 30km a day by May this year. He also said that the Government intends to complete the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways worth around Rs 15,000 crore in the next two years to ease the congestion and pollution of Delhi.