Centre planning to take over State Highways with high traffic density: Nitin Gadkari

The Ministry of Road Transports and Highways is planning to take over the State Highways with high traffic density from the state governments for a period of 25 years to convert them into four or six lane highways, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday. He was addressing the 12th International Convention of Association Of the National Exchanges Members Of India.

Gadkari added that after the period of 25 years, the central government would collect tolls from the highways. "After a period of 12-13 years, the investments will be fully recovered from those state highways along with interests and land acquisition costs," he said.

The road transport and highway minister asserted that the financial markets need to come up with innovative models to fund India’s Infrastructure growth. "We are inviting investments in the PPP model. We can export energy to the world if we channel our investments to waste management, green hydrogen, solar, and several such projects. Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Science, and Technology is the wealth of future India.”