Nitin Gadkari. File | Photo Credit: PTI
“A total of 25,000 km of two -lane highways in the country will be converted into four lanes for 10 lakh crore and will help significantly reduce road accidents,” said Minister of Road Transport and Nitin Gadkari motorway in Lok Sabha on Thursday (March 27, 2025).
Mr. Gadkari also said that 16,000 km of national motorways will also be converted into six lanes for 6 lakh crore.
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“We plan to convert 25,000 km of two -lane highways into a four -lane highway for 10 lakh Crore. DPRS (detailed project messages) are preparing and hope to finish the work in two years,” he said within an hour of questions.
The Minister said that the government favors these projects and as soon as they are completed, the number of traffic accidents is expected to be significantly reduced.
Mr. Gadkari, a few weeks ago, said India recorded 4,80,000 accidents every year, leading to 1,88,000 deaths of people aged 18 to 45 years. He also noted that the country loses 3% of its GDP due to traffic accidents annually and stressed that by 2030 the government wants to reduce road accidents by 50%.
In the lower house Mr. Gadkari also said that the government Modi gave the highest priority the development of motorways in Jammu and Kashmir, northeast states and hilly states such as Himacal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
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He said that the construction of 2 Lakh Crore is taking place in Jammu & Kashmir, where 105 tunnels are designed for easy travel.
The Minister said that the government is also building a tunnel in Zojil, which would be the longest in Asia and will be placed in the temperature zone below zero. He said that initially the tunnel was estimated at more than 12,000 GBP Crore, but only around 5,500 GBP Crore will be completed.
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Mr. Gadkari also invited OM Birla speaker and other deputies to visit the place to see the engineering miracle of Zojila tunnel. He said that working on the Jammu-SrinaGar motorway is also advanced, where 36 tunnels will be built, from which it was completed in 22 tunnels.
He said that once the work was completed, the travel time between Jammu and Srinagar will be shortened to three for three and a half hours instead of the current seven hours.
The Minister said that work on the highway between Delhi-Katra also takes place and after completion of the travel time between two places will be shortened to half of the current 12 hours.
Published – 27 March 2025 01:59
