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
