NHAI identifies 1,500 km of road projects to boost coastal connectivity

NEW DELHI: The National Highways building authority will soon approve 1,500 kilometres of highway projects in the coastal regions of the country to improve coastal connectivity.

“We are now moving forward on four-laning of roads in the coastal region, around 1,500 kms of projects have been identified,” a senior government official told ET.

The exercise has been fast tracked after a push from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the official said.


In his Independence Day speech on Saturday, PM said that the government would focus on improving infrastructure connectivity in the coastal regions.

“Along with this, our coastline has a very important significance in the world trade. While moving on with Port led development, in the coming days, we will focus on working towards building a modern state-of-art infrastructure towards the construction of four lane road across the entire coastline,” Modi had said.

Among other projects, connectivity between Chennai and Kanyakumari will be focussed on, with around 400 km of roads identified in the eastern state of Odisha, the official added.

Modi, in his speech, had also emphasised on coastal infrastructure from the viewpoint of national security.

“Today emphasis is being laid on connectivity in every direction, be it at Himalayan peaks, or the islands of Indian Ocean,” he had said.

Some of these projects are already part of Bharatmala, the government’s flagship highway development program, the official quoted above said.