The Union ministry of Road Transport and Highways has put on fast track the construction of highways along international border under Bharat Mala project under which the ministry will construct nearly 2,000 km of roads at a cost of Rs. 25,000 crore connecting country's major highways with international trade points. It has aimed to develop road connectivity with several south Asian countries, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said, adding that the country has proposed $ 1 billion line of credit to promote sea, air and road connectivity projects with ASEAN. Apart from this, India has also set up a project development fund of $ 77 million to develop manufacturing hubs in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. For Bharat Mala project, MoRTH earmarked to connect India's major highway corridors to international trade points facilitating export and import trade with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Along the Indo-Myanmar border, the government has already started building 120 km of the Kalewa-Yargyi Road segment of the IMT Trilateral Highway for which NHAI is the implementing agency for the stretch entailing an estimated cost worth Rs. 1,177 crore, he added.
