Nearly 16,000 kilometres of two-lane highways in the country are under construction to be converted into four-lane highways, Union minister Nitin Gadkari told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
This is expected to incur an expenditure of nearly Rs 6 lakh crore. These projects are expected to be finished in a phased manner by the end of financial year 2028, the minister of road transport and highways said in a written reply during Question Hour.
The statement came in a response to Bhartiya Janata Party MP Anup Dhotre's question on whether Maharashtra could expect a widening of the two-lane highways spanning nearly 10,300 km in the state into four-lane highways.
For a two-lane highway to qualify for development into four-lane, the criteria has been updated from 10,500 passenger car units, a metric used to measure traffic flow on roads, to 10,000 PCUs, according to Gadkari.
Similarly, four-laners will see criteria reduced from 22,500 PCU to 20,000 PCUs to be converted into six-lane highways, and the six-laners will be redeveloped into eight-lane highways if they have a PCU of 30,000 as compared to the stipulated 34,000 earlier, he said. "In the coming two years, two-lane to four-lane expansion of nearly 25,000 km worth Rs 10 lakh crore is being approved."
A detailed project report for 3,500 km has been created, and a report for the remaining 21,500 km is under progress. This work will be undertaken on a priority basis, he added.
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