Khandepar: India’s target of constructing one lakh kilometer long new National Highway would be completed before its set deadline of eight years, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday.
The minister was addressing the gathering after inaugurating a bridge on Khandepar river, 50 kms away from here.
PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, MPs – Vinay Tendular, Narendra Sawaikar and others were present on the occasion.
Mandaviya said that when Narendra Modi led government took over, the target was set to construct one lakh kilometer long National Highway in eight years. “But considering the pace of work, we will be able to achieve the target much before the deadline,” the minister said.
Mandaviya said that when Modi led government took over, the country had only 92,000 kilometres of National Highway.
“PM Narendra Modi said that when four crore new vehicles are added to the road, we need to take up major work on creating the National Highways.
We decided that in 8 years, we will construct one lakh kilometers new National highway,” he said.
The minister said that the Union government has already constructed 40,000 kilometre long new national highway while 53,000 stretch of national highway is under construction.
“We could do all this because we stopped corruption and money was diverted towards infrastructure projects,” he said adding that besides the National Highways, the work is also going on new Railway Lines and Airport infrastructure across the country.
“The country had 67 airports when we took over and now we have added 33 airports,” he said.
“Due to the additional capacity of airports, all the aviation companies which had total 450 aircrafts, the demand is for additional 1,000 more aircrafts for which the orders are already placed,” he added.
