The infrastructure committee, headed by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, approved expressway projects of around 1,000 km. to be built at a cost of Rs.15,000 crore. This represents Phase VI under the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP-VI).

The committee also gave clearances for the dedicated rail freight corridor project. He also gave its approval for setting up an SPV for the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata stretches of the corridor.

The funds for the freight corridor will be tied up and the project is expected to complete in a span of five years. The expressway projects will be made on a new alignment and is scheduled for completion within 8-10 years.

A 400 km expressway project between Mumbai and Vadodara has been selected for the preparation of a feasibility study. Others stretches measuring 600 km, to be selected from the Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Chandigarh, Kolkata-Dhanbad and Bangalore-Chennai lines, will soon be taken up for pre-feasibility study.

Also See:

Advisory body formed for rail freight corridor (15-Nov-05)

Consultants for NHDP VI by 2006 (26-Dec-05)