"The National Highways length is 96,000 km in the country. The government plans to declare 1.5 lakh km of National Highways by January 26," Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari said here.
Addressing a press conference, the Minister said the step was needed to expand country's infrastructure in view of rising traffic.
He said single lane highways will be converted into double lanes while two lanes will be turned into four lanes, six lanes and eight lanes.
The Minister also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would soon lay the foundation stone of 1,000 km of highways to connect the 'Char Dhams' at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore on a new alignment which will not be subject to any landslides.
Also, work is on Rs 40,000 crore worth of projects in Jammu & Kashmir, he said.