The Prime Minister also approved the proposal of the task force to merge golden quadilateral corridors connecting the four metros with the national highways. Work on 20 select points, expected to cover 7,000 km, would be initiated before the end of the current financial year, according to member secretary of the task force N K Singh.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had recently flagged off the ambitious project near Bangalore and the work on another 20 points of the proposed highway will start soon and is expected to be completed within the next 10 years.

The meeting, chaired by Jaswant Singh, also discussed the progress madeso far in the national highway projects as well as the different airport projects. The meeting was attended by surface transport minister M Thambi Durai and the civil aviation minsiter Ananth Kumar.

Singh said the task force could not discuss the Kelkar report as he was not present at the meeting. The report had suggested a number of ways to fund such infrastructure projects.

He said that a cabinet note on the corporatisation of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore airports had already been prepared by the ministry of civil aviation. The draft rules relating to these airports would also be lined up shortly.