Bhubaneswar: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), Nitin Gadkari today lauded Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) for completing a project which was estimated at Rs 12,000 crore at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore.
“We encouraged Indian contractors for the project and five of them had applied for it. The work was awarded to Hyderabad’s Megha Engineering, and our Government was able to save Rs 5,000 crore from this one single project,” the Union Minister said.
Gadkari said that India’s road infrastructure will be as good as America’s before the end of 2024. Speaking at the Budget Session 2022, in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Gadkari said, “Our aim is to reduce the cost of construction and improve the quality. The milestone of 38 km/day road construction, which is a world record, was achieved by India last year.”
Highlighting the improvement in highway connectivity and road infrastructure, Gadkari said that it now takes only 40 minutes to travel to Meerut from Delhi, as against four hours earlier. The Minister said that connectivity between Delhi to Mumbai will be improved such that the travel time is reduced to 12 hours and added that “we will complete within this year”.
“From Ladakh, Leh to Srinagar we will go to Mumbai. Before the end of this year, we will try that from Srinagar you are able to reach Mumbai in 20 hours,” the Minister said. Work is on in full swing for the Zojila tunnel in Kashmir and is expected to be completed by 2024, much before the scheduled target, he added.
Speaking about upcoming roads, he said Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway is being readied. The Delhi-Amritsar section will be done by the end of this year and the distance will be covered in four hours. Also the Srinagar-Jammu Road will have a connection to join the upcoming Katra-Amritsar-Delhi road, allowing seamless connectivity.
By this road, the journey from Srinagar to Mumbai will be done in 20 hours, Gadkari said adding that “I am trying that (Jammu-Srinagar highway upgrade) it’s done by the year end”. Also the Delhi-Jaipur, the Delhi-Mumbai and the Delhi-Dehradun expressways will be done by the end of the year. While Jaipur and Dehradun will be reachable within two hours each, the Delhi-Mumbai distance will be covered in car within 12 hours.
On the roads connecting the religious circuit, Gadkari said the route to Mansarovar (in Tibet) will be ready on our side by the end of 2023 via Uttarakhand. On road safety, the Minister said, it is now mandatory that all cars come with six air bags. For road engineering, the best global road planners are being roped in.
