The central government plans to invest ₹10 lakh crore (₹10 trillion) over the next two years to strengthen highways across the country, with a special focus on the northeastern region, where roads will be at par with those in the US. This information was given by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in an interview given to the media.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the central government is working to completely transform the country’s infrastructure in the next two years so that it can meet world-class standards. “We are planning to launch projects worth ₹10 lakh crore over the next two years to strengthen highways across the country, with special emphasis on improving the infrastructure of the Northeast and border areas. In the coming two years, the roads in the Northeast will be at par with the roads in the US,” Gadkari said.
Gadkari said that the geography of the North-Eastern region is complex and it is located near the borders, hence there is an urgent need to improve the road infrastructure there. “Our aim is to completely transform the country’s infrastructure to be among the best in the world,” he said. He informed that work is going on in all the states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister informed that 784 highway projects with a length of 21,355 kilometers will be implemented in the eastern states at a cost of ₹3,73,484 crore. These projects include schemes of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
“We are currently running projects worth ₹57,696 crore in Assam, ₹90,000 crore in Bihar, over ₹42,000 crore in West Bengal, ₹53,000 crore in Jharkhand and about ₹58,000 crore in Odisha,” Gadkari said. “In the Northeast, excluding Assam, we are doing projects worth about ₹1 lakh crore this year alone,” he said.
135 seater bus will run in Nagpur
Gadkari informed that a Mass Rapid Transport Pilot Project is going on in Nagpur at a cost of ₹170 crore. “The project involves a 135-seater bus, which will run on non-polluting energy sources and is considered extremely cost-effective. If successful, it will be replicated on major routes across the country, including the Delhi-Jaipur route, and will be implemented under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model,” he said.
Under Modi government, NH increased from 91,287 km to 1,46,204 km.
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways said that there has been a significant increase in the length of the National Highway Network, which was 91,287 kilometers in March 2014 and now stands at 1,46,204 kilometers, and the standards have also improved significantly. The proportion of national highways with less than two lanes in width has also declined from 30 percent to just 9 percent. NHAI constructed 5,614 km of national highways in 2024–25, exceeding its target of 5,150 km.
First Published – April 13, 2025 | 5:38 PM IST
