Government Sets Ambitious 40-km New Roads a Day Target

The government will lay more than 40 km of roads every day,  revising the earlier target of 16 km per day in 2016-17. The decision to more than double the current pace was taken following the positive response received by the road ministry.

It has also increased the target to award projects by 2.5 times to 25,000 km during the financial year 2016-17.

“The minister has set a target of 25,000 km of national highways to be awarded in 2016-17 as against the 10,000 km awarded in 2015-16. The construction target has been set at 15,000 km as against the 6,000 km constructed last year", an official statement said

In 2015-16, the ministry was able to award around 10,000 km of highway contracts worth Rs 1 lakh crore.Last year, the ministry had awarded a record 10,000 km of projects and constructed 6,000 km of highways, which is 36 percent higher than the preceding fiscal.

The speeding up of road projects has been made possible due to several policy interventions which include the ministry being empowered to decide mode of delivery, increased threshold for project approval, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination, exit policy and promoting innovative project implementation models like hybrid annuity model.

SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS