Government plans separate body for constructing expressways

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to set up a separate body to undertake construction of expressways project worth at least Rs 25,000 crore.

Currently, all highway projects are undertaken by the National Highways Authority of India ( NHAI). "The new body will have the mandate to construct expressway projects. It will be a specialized body and is likely to have global consultants on its board," a senior government official said.

Roads transport and highways ministry has proposed to construct 15 expressways project out of which eight have already been approved by the cabinet.

Other than the approved ones that include Vadodra-Mumbai, Delhi-Meerut, Eastern and Western Peripheral expressways there’s also a proposal to build expressways between Nagpur-Mumbai, Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Nagpur-Hyderabad, Pune-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Bangalore.

"For the proposed expressways, we are still in talks with state governments. The funding and land acquisition models are yet to be finalised," the official added.

The government has decided to increase India’s national highways network to 1.5 lakh km within a year by adding 50,000 km more to the existing network. Roads ministry is already in the process to increase its road building capacity with the target of achieving 30 km of roads construction every day by March 2016.