50,000 km of highways to be declared as NHs by Jan 26: Govt

The government plans to declare about 50,000 km of highways as National Highways (NH) before January 26, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

"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. 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. "Also, the government is contemplating for bitumen surfacing of concrete roads on the pattern of Germany which extended the lifespan of roads and was planning to introduce the same on Eastern and Western peripheral expressways besides Delhi-Meerut Expressway," he said.

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. "Besides work is on to strengthen infrastructure in North East," he added.