The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on national highways has decided to convert 10,000 km of roads into national highways. The decision will help the Centre expand the national highway network of 70,934 km faster. It will also reduce proportionately the financial burden on states, as they are not required to spend on national highways.
The decision was taken in the meeting of EGoM, consisting of road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Wednesday. The government has been receiving demands for declaration of 50,000-km state roads as national highways.
The road ministry has now started the process of identifying 10,000 km stretches of state roads that could be considered for declaration as new national highways. The declaration would be done on the basis of the proposals given by state governments, stretches identified under the current 20-year road development plan of the ministry, and roads considered important from strategic considerations, a senior official in the ministry said.
The ministry has estimated the total fund requirement for development of these 10,000 km of state roads at about Rs 15,000 crore in the five years ending 2015-16. The group could not discuss the proposal of changing the norms on toll for two-lane highways, the official said.
Meanwhile, National Highways Authority of India is going to take up on Friday the issue of altering request for qualification and request for proposal documents so as to include suitable provisions for the ambitious mega highways projects?which will need investment of about Rs 4,000 crore each. The government has identified 10 such projects and expects to start inviting bids for the same in the next two months.