Road projects involving Rs 50K crore to come up in Uttarakhand by 2019: Nitin Gadkari

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Announcing a slew of projects for Uttarakhand in next two years, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said 70 roads involving around Rs 50,000 crore will come up in the state by 2019.

The Union Road Transport and Highways Minister has also reviewed the progress of the all weather road projects, Namami Gange programme and other national highway projects here.

By 2019 the state will see construction of a number of roads worth Rs 50,000 crore, including the all weather chardham road project and five projects cleared under the Bharatmala plan, he said.

Five border road projects worth Rs 9,700 crore covering a distance of 570 km have been cleared for the state under Bharatmala project and the NHIBCL has been asked to finish the construction of these roads in six months, Gadkari told reporters here.

The minister also praised the state government for working actively on the approximately Rs 12,000 crore all weather road projects which interlinks the four famous Himalayan shrines located in the state.

"Works for 400 km out of a total of 900 km of the all weather road projects have already been awarded. The state government has also worked swiftly to remove the bottlenecks in awarding works for the remaining 500 km of roads under the project and I am confident that by March 2019 tenders for the rest of the works will also be allotted," he said.

The construction of the all weather roads project is being done with strict adherence to the international norms with special emphasis on their proper alignment and making them landslide resistant, he said.

Clearance has been given for the construction of a 4.5 km tunnel involving Rs 1300 crore at Silkyara as part of the project.

Replying to a question he said the National Highways Authority of India will spend around Rs 50,000 crore on a total of 70 road projects in the state by 2019.

Work on the Delhi-Shamli-Dehradun Expressway has also been started and in six months from now when the project is completed, people from Uttarakhand will not have to go to Rajasthan, Punjab and other states via Delhi.

"They can bypass Delhi which will also help reduce the pollution levels in the national capital," he said.

Gadkari also issued instructions to finish work related to Namami Gange by the end of December, 2018.

He also suggested that a detailed action plan be prepared by the state government for sewage treatment of rivers other than the Ganga and Yamuna, including the Kali Ganga and Ram Ganga.