BHUBANESWAR: In a major announcement, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will invest Rs 25,000 crore for development of three economic corridors in Odisha.
Gadkari made the announcement while dedicating two national highway projects - a 78 km-long six-lane road between Chandikhole and Bhadrak on NH 16 worth Rs 2,035 crore and a 79 km-long four-lane between Baharagoda and Singhra on NH 49 worth Rs 1,203 crore and laying of foundation for 26 road projects virtually from New Delhi.
“I am happy to inform that we are spending around Rs 1.5 lakh crore on different NH projects in Odisha. Construction of 4,249 km of road has been completed in the last 10 years from 2014 to 2023 at an investment of Rs 33,000 crore. It is targeted to complete another 1,312 km of roads in 2024-25 at an investment of Rs 22,000 crore,” Gadkari said.
He said the detailed project report (DPR) for 786 km of NH is getting ready and projects worth Rs 60,000 crore are in pipeline for execution in 2025-26. Work order of the Rs 6,653 crore 111 km six-lane Odisha Capital Region Ring Road (CRRR) project of NHAI will be issued in March this year and the project will be taken up in two packages, he said.
Under package I, a 71 km stretch from Rameswar to Govindpur will be constructed for Rs 4,026 crore while under package-II another 40 km from Govindpur to Tangi will be built at an investment of Rs 2,287 crore.
The six-lane expressway will allow vehicles on NH-16 to bypass Khordha town, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack city and ease traffic congestion. On completion of the ring road, the travel time will get reduced by one-and-a-half hours, he said.
Gadkari, who was scheduled to visit Odisha for launching the programme at Puri had to cancel the tour at the last moment due to some unavoidable reasons.