MoRTH clears Rs.3,000 cr road upgrades

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)

The Central government has given go-ahead to upgrade 12 state highways and major district roads in Bihar into national highways (NHs) entailing a whopping investment of Rs.3,000 crore. The projects are being undertaken under the special package announced by PM, state road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav said that the detailed project reports (DPRs) have already been approved by the Centre and the construction work is likely to start shortly. He added that the ministry of road transport and highways has already given in-principal approvals to upgrade 52 roads in Bihar to NHs and to start with the state has selected 12 roads in the first phase and the remaining roads will also be shortlisted very shortly. It may be recalled that the PM had announced the special financial package of Rs.1,25,003 crore for Bihar during electioneering to the state assembly. Out of that, Rs.54,000 crore was proposed to be spent on construction of roads and as many as 68 schemes under the special package have been awarded and the remaining ones are in the tendering and approval stages while DPR for the remaining 22 schemes are currently being prepared.