New Delhi, March 15 (IANS). According to the information given in the Lok Sabha, contracts for construction of 26,425 km of highway in the country have been given under the Bharatmala Project, out of which 19,826 km of highway construction has been completed so far.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told the lower house earlier this week in a written reply that the purpose of the Bharatmala project is to improve logistics efficiency and connectivity in the country.
The project aims to ensure connectivity to districts affected by tribal, backward and leftist extremism, reduce accidents on highways and set up a safe transport network.
By February this year, 6,669 km long high speed greenfield corridors have been allocated, out of which 4,610 km of construction has been completed.
The Union Minister further stated that many smart techniques like automated and intelligent machine-aid construction (AI-MC), LIDAR and drone-based analytics are being adopted in highway construction.
According to data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the length of India’s National Highway Network has increased by 60 percent in the last 10 years, which has increased from 91,287 km to 146,195 km in 2024 in 2014, making it the second largest road network in the world.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has planned to create a network of 35 multimodal logistics parks (MMLP) with a total investment of about Rs 46,000 crore as part of the Bharatmala Project, which will be able to handle about 700 million tonnes of cargo after once operational.
Out of this, MMLP will be made at 15 priority places with a total investment of about Rs 22,000 crore.
The statement further states that in some cases, the MMLP is being developed in front of the inland waterways terminals under the Sagarmala project to further reduce the cost of the inland car movement compared to the traditional road-based movement.
According to the official statement, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has prepared a comprehensive port connectivity master plan to promote industry and internal trade to ensure easily access to all current ports in the country. For this, 59 important infrastructure projects of about 1,300 km length have been selected, which will be implemented.
-IANS
SKT/AS
