Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been able to achieve the feat despite Covid-19 challenges.India is adding more national highways every day than it has ever before.
The sharp increase in construction of national highways is documented by the fact that in 202-21, the national highways construction pace reached 36.5 kms per day.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari took to Twitter to announce this feat achieved by his ministry. He also reminded that India had already created a world record by constructing a 2.5 km four-lane concrete road in just 24 hours, and 26-km single-lane bitumen road in just 21 hours.
To maintain the speed at which India is building national highways, Gadkari said efforts are made to support contractors, relax contract provisions, make direct payment to sub-contractors and food and medical facilities to on-site workers.
Gadkari said that the construction work maintains standards as per highest Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) specifications. A quality control zone has also been set up keep a check on the roads being built. “It is the responsibility of such consultants to ensure compliance of the provisions of the concession or contract agreement in so far as quality of the work is concerned,” he said.
Earlier this week, Nitin Gadkari said that India has added a total of 2,284 kilometres of national highways during the April-June period. It is a rise of more than 25 per cent compared to the same period a year ago period.
Between April and June last year, India saw a total of 1,823 kilometres of national highways added to its network.
Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha earlier, Gadkari had said there are 2,112 ongoing national highway projects across India at present. It is currently busy developing the Green National Highway Corridor Project (GNHCP), for which the Centre had signed a loan agreement with the World Bank. The project will upgrade around 781 kms of national highways passing through states like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.