NEW DELHI : The government has increased the target for highways project awards during the current financial year by 25 per cent compared to the previous year, according to Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. The government is targeting achiveing project awards totaling 20,000 km in FY18-19. The government has also raised the highway construction target for 2018-19 — now pegged at 16,420 km — and per day construction target at 45 km for the current fiscal against about 27 km per day fpr the previous year. “The ministry is making allout efforts to improve and strengthen the highways network in the country.
This year, the focus will be more on construction, but the award would be more than last year. There will also be focus on completing the DPRs (detailed project reports) of all the ‘in-principle’ declared national highways,” the road transport and highways minister said. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has fixed a target of awarding works for around 20,000 kilometres length of national highways during the current year 2018-19,” MoRTH said in a statement quoting the minister. This is about 25 per cent more than the 17,055 km awarded during 2017-18, of which, 8,652 km was awarded by the ministry, 7,397 by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and 1,006 km by NHIDCL, the minister said. The construction targets for 2018-19 have been set at 16,420 km, of which 9,700 km will be constructed by MoRTH, 6,000 km by NHAI and 720 km by NHIDCL, Gadkari said.
A total of 9,829 kilometre length of national highways was constructed during 2017-18. Gadkari held a review meeting of officials of his ministry on Tuesday in which the state wise status of projects was reviewed. “The yearly targets should be divided into quarterly targets so that there is no pressure at the end of the year.” Meanwhile, three major ports - Paradip, Ennore and Chidambarnar - will install plants to recycle and desalinate sea water. According to the Ministry of Shipping, Gadkari has convened a meeting of port chairmen to discuss desalination technologies and their application at major ports, and directed that desalination plants should be installed with immediate effect.