Work begins on 5 expressway projects, 7 more on anvil: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: The government has started work on five expressways including Delhi-Meerut while other seven projects will be launched soon, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

"We are constructing 12 new express highways. Work on five has already started. These include Eastern Peripheral expressway which will be completed by August 15 this year and Delhi-Meerut expressway," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari said addressing the media here.

After inaugurating an exhibition at India Integrated Transport & Logistics Summit 2017, the minister said work will begin on Vadodara-Mumbai project this year.

"Alignments for Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Ludhiana- Amritsar-Katra expressways have been finalised," he said.

The other projects he said include 250 km Bangalore- Chennai expressway beside Hyderabad-Vijayawada and Nagpur-Hyderabad projects.

The Minister said the road building pace has reached 23 km a day at present and would touch 40 km a day in March 2018.

He said a massive road network will be built under Bharatmala that would include highways in border areas and hilly terrains besides road connectivity to district headquarters and tribal areas.