Bangalore: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath on Wednesday said the country was aiming at achieving a target of building roads of 20 kms a day by March 2010.
"We should be able to achieve 20 kms a day by March, which would be a huge leap from 2-2.2kms earlier to seven kms currently," he told reporters on the sidelines of the fifth International Construction Equipment and Construction Technology Trade Fair here.
On the issue of funding, he said, "I think funds will be in place. We have plans till 2009/10, which is why funds will not be a problem. At least till 2010/11, we will not be looking for additional funding".
The Ministry was also considering setting up of a separate Express Highway authority, for which it will be approaching Parliament soon. An express high highway division was already set up 15 days ago in the National Highway Authority, he said.
The proposal was aimed at building 17,000 kms of expressways like those running from Mumbai-Bangalore and Mumbai-Chennai.
India was seeking a fund of USD 2.97 billion from the World Bank to convert its 7000 kms national highway from single lane to double lane, he said.
"We are processing a proposal for the World Bank Project," he said, adding he would discuss the issue with the World Bank President during his scheduled visit to the country on December 2.
The expressways would be built in collaboration with state governments as the project involved townships and satellite towns, Kamal Nath said.
On land acquisition for building roads, he said the issue would involve the support of the state governments as it would mean moving away utilities like electric poles, tanks and other amenities.
"I am not going to be proactive on this", he said in a warning to the states that if he did not receive cooperation from them on the matter he would "have no choice but to abandon" the project.
To a question whether there would be need to float any Special Purpose Vehicle, he replied in the negative. The Highway Authority is enough, he said.
Earlier addressing the session, he expressed confidence that India would continue in its growth trajectory. The greatest challenge, he said, was managing growth in terms of ensuring an equitable growth.
"The largest deficit is infrastructure deficit in our growth story," he said. The challenge was not only to bridge this deficit but also to build for the demand that will be created by the country's growth story. "The next decade has to be a decade of infrastructure", he said.
Huge capacity building has to be done across the spectrum, in terms of consultancy, engineers, contractual abilities and engineering. Equipment manufacturers would have a great role to play. Development of human resources, in terms of skill development, would also play a role apart from India specific R and D, he said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 23:55