The union government allotted a total of 322 projects for the construction of 12,413 km roads under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' by August, said the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in a statement.
Bharatmala Pariyojana is a centrally-sponsored and funded road and Highways project of the Government of India that was launched in July 2015. The total investment for 83,677 km committed new highways is estimated at ₹5.35 lakh crore.
The project is aimed to build highways from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and then cover the entire string of Himalayan states - Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand - and then portions of borders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alongside Terai, and move to West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram.
Central government awards 322 projects for 12,413 km road construction: Key Points
• Till August, 2,921 km of road has been constructed under the Bharatmala project.
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has taken up a detailed review of the National Highways network.
• The Ministry has nodded for an overall investment approval for the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase I Scheme for development of about 34,800 km (including 10,000 km residual NHDP stretches) at an estimated outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore.
• Bharatmala Pariyojana is an umbrella program for the highways sector that focuses on optimizing the efficiency of freight and passenger movement across the country by bridging critical infrastructure gaps through effective interventions like the development of Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvement, Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal and Port connectivity roads and Green-field expressways.
