NEW DELHI, Aug 1:
The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has taken up a detailed review of national highways network with a view to improve road connectivity to coastal or border areas and widening of major bridges, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh L Mandaviya said, ”The Ministry has taken review of national highways’ network in order to improve road connectivity to backward areas, religious places, tourist places, construction, rehabilitation, widening of railway over bridges, improvement of newly declared NHs providing connectivity to district headquarters, road connectivity towards integration with Sagarmala, connectivity improvement programme for Char Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri and Gangothri in Uttarakhand), among others under proposed new programmes which are yet to be formally launched.”
He said they have also taken up development of highways, roads under various phases of National Highways Development Project, Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North East Region including Arunachal Pradesh package for roads, special programme for development of roads in the Left-wing Extremism-affected areas, national highways inter-connectivity improvement project among others.
Mr Mandaviya said his Ministry was mainly responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways which is a continuous process. The total length of NHs in the country is about 1,03,519 km. The works on NHs are taken up depending on inter-se priority, traffic density and availability of funds.
State roads are declared as new NHs from time to time keeping in view the requirements of connectivity, inter-se priority and availability of funds, he added.
”Also, decision for upgrade of existing NHs to four-lane standards are taken depending upon the traffic density, terrain type, inter-se priority and availability of funds,” Mr Mandaviya stated. (UNI)
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