Transport ministry reviews for developing national highways along coastline
Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Radhakrishnan said the review is being done with a view to developing road connectivity to border areas, development of coastal roads
In Short
- New projects for improvment and devlopment of coastlines
- Sagar mala and Bharat mala project intends to achieve the broad objectives.
- The ministry has taken up detailed review of national highways (NHs) network
The Road Transport and Highways ministry has taken up detailed review of national highways along coastline.
Informing this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on August 3, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Radhakrishnan said the review is being done with a view to developing road connectivity to border areas, development of coastal roads including road connectivity for non-major ports, improvement in the efficiency of national corridors, development of economic corridors, inter corridors and feeder routes along with integration with Sagar mala under the proposed Bharat mala Pariyojana.
The total length of national highways along the coastline, states and Union Territories is as follows: Andhra Pradesh - 974 km, Andaman and Nicobar Islands - 25 km, Daman and Diu 22 km, Goa 262 km, Gujarat - 940 km, Karnataka - 298 km, Kerala 692 km, Maharashtra - 493 km, Odisha - 437 km, Puducherry - 41 km, Tamil Nadu - 154 km and West Bengal - 7 km.
The Sagar mala Project intends to achieve the broad objectives of enhancing the capacity of major and non-major ports and modernising them to make them efficient, thereby enabling them to become drivers of port-led economic development.
It also aims at optimising the use of existing and future transport assets and developing new lines and linkages for transport (including roads, rail, inland waterways and coastal routes), setting up of logistics hubs and establishment of industries and manufacturing centres to be served by ports in EXIM and domestic trade.
Under the Bharat mala project, the ministry has taken up detailed review of national highways (NHs) network with a view to improving 17,200-km road connectivity to coastal and border areas, backward areas, religious places, tourist places; construction, rehabilitation and widening of about 1,500 major bridges and 200 railway over bridges (ROBs), railway under bridges (RUBs) on NHs, improvement of newly declared NHs providing connectivity to district headquarters and connectivity improvement programme for Char-Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri and Gangothri in Uttarakhand).