Road, Defence ministries meet to iron out bottlenecks on highway projects

Ministries have decided to resolve pending issues in a time bound manner, the official said

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have achieved some traction as far as transfer of defence land for constructing highway projects is concerned. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to discuss pending issues of transfer of defence land for highways and shipping projects.

According to an official, the two ministries have been working closely to resolve these issues.

Cases like transfer of land on Gwalior - Shivpuri section of NH-3, Jodhpur - Barmer section of NH-112, Dagshi village on NH-22 ad Tinsukia bypass have been resolved as a result of mutual consultations, an official said.

Pending cases like widening of NH-8 (Dhaula Kuan and IFFCO chowk) , Chennai port to Maduravoyal and transfer of defence land for eastern waterfront project of Mumbai Port were discussed.

Both the parties have decided to extend full co-operation and resolve the pending issues in a time bound manner, the official said.

Meanwhile, some portions of Char Dham and J&K roads were also discussed in the meeting.

Gadkari said that his ministry would provide funds to Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for building the Char Dham roads on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis for faster execution.

Enhancing the powers of BRO was also a request made by the Road Ministry to the Ministry of Defence. Currently, BRO has authority to sanction mere Rs 2 crore for preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project.

The government has plans to invest Rs 20,000 crore in upgrading and building the national highway network around Char Dham and Buddhist circuits.

Of the total investment, Rs 11,700 crore alone would be spent on the construction of all-weather roads connecting Char Dham that includes four holy shrines of Hindus - Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarakhand .