Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari today laid the foundation stone of highway projects entailing investment of Rs Rs 2,358 crore in Karnataka.
The projects include widening and four-laning of NH 75 between sections Hassan to Maranahally, Addahole (near Gundya) to Bantwal Cross section, and provide rigid pavement on the Shiradi Ghat stretch of the highway.
The minister also inaugurated the Baikampady overbridge near BC Road on NH 75.
The Road, Transport and Highways Ministry had taken a conscious decision to increase the national highway from 96,000 km to two lakh km in view of the increasing road accident deaths and "I am proud to say now that the work on 1.55 lakh km has been completed," Gadkari added.
"About 5 lakh accidents take place every year, resulting in 1.5 lakh deaths," he added.
The target was to consider how lives of the people could be saved by preventing accidents. By increasing the length of national highways to two lakh km, about 80 percent of the traffic would be on the highways, the minister claimed.
Gadkari further said agriculture and industrial sectors were very crucial for development of the nation. Power, water and transport were important to promote industries thereby creating more employment.
He said his ministry had also adopted a policy to convert two lane roads into four lanes and construct all roads with cement concrete which would last up to 50 years, he said.
During the meeting, it also came up that "the road transit
from Chabahar to Zahedan and Milak is very limited at present and it needs to be augmented, apart from building the rail link."
Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nation's southern coast, lies outside the Persian Gulf and is easily accessed from India's western coast, bypassing Pakistan.
"The bilateral agreement to develop the Chabahar port and related infrastructure and availability of about USD 500 million from India for this purpose is an important milestone," Modi had earlier said in a joint media interaction with Rouhani.
