The government has proposed to build nearly 3,000 km of expressway in the second phase of the Bharatmala highway project, reported The Times of India.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which is tasked with the responsibility of managing a network of highways, has invited bids for the project as soon as the work for the first phase are bid out.
According to the report, poorly detailed project reports (DPR) have been one of the reasons for the delay in the execution of the projects.
Speaking to the daily, a highway ministry official said, “It took us about two years to prepare DPRs for phase one of Bharatmala. Undertaking DPR preparation for the next lot of projects will help save time and the focus is on preparing high quality detailed reports for faster execution.”
The project will focus on expressways including Varanasi-Ranchi-Kolkata, Indore-Mumbai, Bengaluru-Pune and Chennai-Trichy.
The report also adds that most of these will be greenfield alignment, ie, new roads (totalling around 4,000 km) aimed at reducing distance and travel time for people. Till now, highway construction has seen expansion and widening of roads.
The target date for rolling out these roads under the Bharatmala phase-II would be by 2024.
(With inputs from The Times of India)
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