Need to add new highways, widen existing ones: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: The government will convert 25,000 km of two-lane national highways with vehicle density higher than 10,000 PCUs (passenger car units) into four lanes at an investment of ₹10 lakh crore in the next two years, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said.

Speaking at the summit, Gadkari said there is a need to add new highways and widen the existing ones to address the issue of traffic jams and make India's infrastructure world-class. There are 670 National Highways (NHs) in the country with a total length of 1,46,204 km. At present, 636 NHs projects of four, six or eight lane, spanning 16,422 km length, are under construction at an estimated cost of ₹6.35 lakh crore, Gadkari said.

As per Gadkari, the government is also planning to convert high decibel vehicle horns into low decibel musical sounds of flute, tabla or harmonium to address the issue of sound pollution. "The Motor Vehicles Act is under the ministry of road transport and highways. We will make necessary changes in the Act to ensure vehicles have low decibel horns," he said.