New plans for roads: A Project a day

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, headed by Nitin Gadkari, has come up with “a project a day” plan. The ministry has drawn up a list of 500 projects which will either be inaugurated or for which foundation stones will be laid.

The list of 500 projects includes highway projects and some projects related to the development of waterways and construction of jetties. The government has awarded highway projects covering 34,000 km in the last three years.

The ministry has allocated Rs one lakh crore for the development of the National Highways for FY 2017-18. It has targeted construction of 15,000 km of highways, of which 44 percent was completed in February 2017.

In FY 2016-17, a total of 31 road projects worth 14,449.87 crore were completed. Of these, two projects of Rs 902.89 crore, covering a total length of 210.28 km, were executed under annuity basis. Another set of nine projects were completed under BOT, entailing a total investment of Rs 10,118.44 crore. The total length that was covered was 1,149.665 km. Thirty two projects worth Rs 3,428.54 crore were completed under EPC, covering a total length of 551.265 km.

In the first two months of FY-18, a total of 1,627 km highways have been built. Of the total length, MoRTH and state highways have built 1,176 km. NHAI covered a length of 435 km, and the remaining 16 km was built by National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL).

Presently, 92 road projects (5,427.45 km) are under execution and will entail a total investment of Rs 62,646.86 crore. One of the biggest projects, which is currently under execution, is Eastern Peripheral Expressway (Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal) project. The roadway project  will come up in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh at an investment of Rs 7,558.3 crore. The project will be implemented in six packages.

The Ministry of Roadways has set an ambitious target of constructing 40 km a day. Whereas, in the present scenario, the construction is at a pace of 23 km per day. The ministry is on its way to revive stalled projects and has also awarded the highest number of projects to make it achievable.

Top five projects awarded by NHAI in previous three months: