New Delhi, July 14: Road Transport and Highways Minister B C Khanduri today sought greater cooperation from state governments to expedite national higways development project. Speaking at the parliamentary consultative committee meeting here today, Khanduri said increased cooperation would speed up land acquisition and development of more than 13,000 kms of national highways.
Giving details about the project, he said 13,146 kms are proposed to be upgraded.
Under Golden Quadliateral Project covering 5846 kms across 13 states, 1408 kms have been upgraded while work is on to cover the rest.
The Minister added that works for Allahabad bypass would be awarded during the next three months.
On the north-south and east-west corridor, he said work was on to award contracts for 6294 kms while on another 423 kms work was on. The project is scheduled to go on stream by 2007.
He noted that projects faced problems owing to failure of states to acquire land in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, lack of environmental clearences in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, law and order problems, court cases and bad performance by agencies.
The goverment is taking various steps to ensure completion of the project including introduction of bonuses and penalty clauses in contracts, holding official level meetings in states and taking up the issue with chief minister and senior officials.
Bureau Report