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Cabinet Nod for 20,000 KM of Highways Likely Today

  • The Cabinet on Thursday is likely to clear a proposal of the Road Transport and Highways (RTH) Ministry for the construction of a whopping 20,000 km of highways.
  • According to sources, the stretch of 20,000 km is being sought to be approved under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) IV at a cost of about Rs25,000 crore. Only 2,000 km of the total 20,000 km pertains to four-laning of highways. The remaining concerns only two-laning of the highways, the sources said.
  • The Centre has recently approved six national highway projects measuring about 500 km for Madhya Pradesh after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s letter to Union Road Transport and Highways (RTH) Minister CP Joshi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last year. The total project cost of these projects, to be awarded under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, is over Rs2917 crore.
  • Two projects were approved by the Finance Minister while the other four by the RTH Minister. Besides these, the Centre also cleared four projects for Rajasthan, the home State of the RTH Minister.
  • Another proposal likely to be taken up for approval in Thursday’s Cabinet meeting is regarding formation of a Core Group for Self-Help Groups (SHGs). There is a proposal of the Finance Ministry for the creation of some posts of Joint Secretary.

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