National highways in remote areas, intermediate and single roads are all set to be two laned, with the government having identified 5,000-km of such roads for upgradation.
India expects a big investment of $5 billion (about Rs 22,800 crore) from Canada in the country's road development programme over the next three to four years, road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has said.
The notification issued by the Union Environment Ministry also exempts projects pertaining to the expansion of terminal buildings at airports (without an increase in the existing area of the airport) from seeking green nod.
India tops the world with 11% of global deaths in road accidents while we have only 1% of the world's vehicles.
Road builders have been asking for one to resolve various contract disputes and renegotiate others.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister B C Khanduri on Wednesday said the 5,846 km long Golden Quadrilateral project would be almost over by 2005.
In an apparent comment on the current political situation in Maharashtra, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said those who were aspiring to become ministers are now sad as the field has got "crowded", and they do not know what to do with their "stitched suits".
MCA is a legal contract, which prescribes the terms and conditions for executing a road project.
The Madras High Court has set aside a notification of the central government, fixing 120 kmph as the speed limit for vehicles plying on highways.
Kamal Nath is in New York attending several meetings, including McGraw-Hill Construction, which is one of the largest construction industry events.
The statement by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) comes in the backdrop of collapse of under-construction Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi on November 12.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has sought a meeting with quick-commerce (qcom) platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto on Tuesday to discuss issues regarding violations of food safety standards, according to sources familiar with the matter. This comes at a time when there have been issues raised about food safety standard violations by qcom platforms for packaged food products, including violations related to expiry and best before dates.
As even bigger road construction players are not willing to bet on BOT projects., NHAI will have to rethink its thrust on the BOT model.
A plan for projects to be awarded in the year 2010-11 is to be launched soon.
Devotees attending the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj are facing transportation challenges, with many forced to walk long distances in search of transport. Thousands of pilgrims returning from the event are stranded at Varanasi Cantt and Banaras railway stations, with some missing their trains due to the rush and others stuck because of cancellations. Officials say the traffic situation in the district has returned to normal, but some pilgrims report difficulties in finding transport and reaching their destinations.
The Centre on Wednesday scrapped the mandatory human safety tests for electric vehicle (EV) batteries required to qualify for incentives under various government schemes. The ministry of heavy industries, in its fresh guidelines, has made compliance with the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH's) prevailing EV battery testing standards the only requirement to get incentives under the Centre's various incentive schemes.
India will not allow Chinese companies to participate in highway projects, including those through joint ventures, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday amid the border standoff with China. Gadakri also said the government will ensure that Chinese investors are not entertained in various sectors like the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
With around 85,000 road accident deaths every year, the ministry for road transport and highways is considering a proposal to set up a Commissionerate for Safety.
The government planned to build 12,000 kilometres of roads, including highways, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) in the current financial year, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said.
This will fill the road infrastructure deficit.
'Some districts have said that areas which are away from the urban centres and where there have been minimal to zero Covid-19 cases may be exempted from the lockdown and construction activity should be allowed,' said a person in the know.
The central government's highway award and construction target for the current fiscal is dominated by the Bharatmala scheme.
Roads and national highways are the lifeline of the country, says Oscar Fernandes.
"We have sought assistance from World Bank for 37,000 km of roads as we plan to take up work on these projects soon," Road Minister C P Joshi told reporters after a meeting with a World Bank delegation, headed by its South Asia Region Vice President Isabel Guerrero.
The Planning Commission on Monday lowered the target for construction of roads under the NHDP scheme to 2,500 km for the current fiscal from 3,165 km in the previous year, which was not met by the road ministry.
The six-laning of Vadodara-Mumbai section of National Highway No 8 will be taken up at an estimated cost of about Rs 3200 crores (Rs 32 billion), Minister of State for Road Transport K H Muniyappa said in Vadodara on Monday.
While some states like Kerala and Telangana were badly hit by the strike, the impact was partial in Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra
A high performance drilling machine was brought in Uttarkashi from Indore on Saturday to pierce through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route and was being assembled before it is deployed to resume drilling, officials at the site said.
Afreen Shah, a 20-year-old woman, was one of seven people killed in a bus accident in Mumbai's Kurla on Monday night. The bus rammed into pedestrians and vehicles on the SG Barve Road, leaving 42 others injured. The accident occurred as Afreen was waiting for an autorickshaw after her first day at a new job. Her father, Abdul Salim Shah, spoke to her last at 9:09 pm, advising her to walk towards the highway to find an autorickshaw. He received a call from Bhabha Hospital at 9:54 pm, informing him of his daughter's death. Shah has called for government action to prevent similar accidents, citing congestion due to illegal parking, hawking, and metro rail work. The bus driver has been arrested and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took oath as member of the 18th Lok Sabha.
With a large number of Indian youth aspiring to work in the railways, delays in filling up railway job vacancies were a point of criticism against the BJP in the run-up to the elections.
India's network has expanded at a compound annual rate of around 4% which has added more than 4.8 km of additional roads since 1951, but even so the network remains badly underdeveloped
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday asserted that votes are won on the basis of "politics of service" rather than on "posters and banners".
He further said that the "focus is on horizontal drilling" as rock formation has created challenges for vertical drilling.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took potshots at the rival Shiv Sena over its minister not finding a place in the reconstituted NITI Aayog.
The government has approved 20 new highway and housing projects at a total investment of Rs 14,538 crore (Rs 145.38 billion).
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