The Government of India has awarded 5,700 km of projects under its ambitious Bharatmala infrastructure project. An official with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has confirmed that Centre is keenly working with state governments to address and solve land acquirement issues for this project.
Estimated at a cost of Rs 5.35 lakh crore, the mega Bharatmala project is an initiative by Modi government that aims to construct 34,800 km of highways across the country. The news was confirmed by Nagendra Nath Sinha, MD of National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited in conversation with CNBC-TV18
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The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded around 2,222 km of road contracts in the financial year 2019. In FY19, around 3,400 km of roads were constructed as opposed to 3,071 km in FY18. Sinha also underlined that presence of abundance capital, leading to fund availability, did not hinder land acquisition.
Earlier, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had reiterated Modi government’s commitment to building world-class expressways network in the country. Gadkari had asserted government intent to award work for 6,000 km of road under the Bharatmala initiative.
The Bharatmala project is a part of the plan conceptualized and approved by the Modi government in 2017 to create a modern roadways infrastructure network across India. Under this initiative, the government plans to construct 83,677 km of highways in five years at the cost of Rs 7 lakh crore, which includes the 34,800 km of Bharatmala project. In December 2018, Gadkari had announced that 1.31 lakh km of National Highways had been constructed till that point of time.