&w=3840&q=100)
National highways construction pace slows to 29 km per day in FY25: Gadkari
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, said the pace of National Highways construction during 2023-24 stood at 34 km/day. The highest-ever pace was recorded in 2020-21, when it reached 37 km per day.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs), including National Expressways.
The ministry had constructed 10,660 km length of national highways in 2024-25, 12,349 km length of national highways in 2023-24 and 10,331 km length of national highways in 2022-23.
Gadkari said all the NHs development projects, including development of access-controlled High Speed Corridors (HSC) / Expressways, are planned in line with PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) Principles.
"The government has constructed 10,660 km of NHs during the last Financial Year 2024-25. Projects in 26,425 km have been awarded under Bharatmala Pariyojana, out of which 20,770 km have been constructed so far, including 2,967 km constructed during FY 2024-25," he said.
The minister said that the government has decided to focus on the development of greenfield access-controlled HSCs / expressways for improving the logistics efficiency of the country.
Accordingly, he said 26 greenfield corridors in about 7,500 km have been awarded and, additionally, about 600 km has already been approved.
"Out of this, about 4,800 km has been constructed so far. Total 2,636 km length has already been operationalised," he said, adding that the remaining sections are planned to be operationalised in a phased manner in the next two years.
He said the PM GatiShakti NMP portal depicts the economic zones and the infrastructure linkages required to support them with an objective to holistically integrate all the multimodal connectivity projects. This also facilitates identifying the missing gaps for seamless movement of people, goods & services for proper connectivity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
11 minutes ago
- Hans India
India's energy sector is rising through global uncertainty: Hardeep Puri
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Sunday that India's energy sector is rising through global uncertainty with the reforms that have been rolled out in the oil and gas sector. "While the world faces fuel volatility, India is moving ahead with reforms. Oil refining capacity in the country has increased from 215 to 258 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA), and Jamnagar is now Asia's largest refinery, exporting petroleum products to 100+ countries," the minister said in a post on X. Highlighting the reforms in the upstream oil & gas exploration and production segment, the minister said that the open acreage licensing policy (OALP) Round 10 has unlocked 2.5 lakh sq km for further exploration and production. The clearances required for exploration have also been reduced from 37 to 18 to facilitate the ease of doing business. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision is driving India's energy security through resilience with over $1.3 billion having been invested in the upstream segment to increase oil exploration and production," he said. The minister has also recently highlighted in the Parliament that India is witnessing a renewed surge in oil and gas exploration with the opening of nearly one million square kilometres of erstwhile 'No-Go' offshore areas in 2022. Since 2015, Exploration and Production (E&P) companies operating in India have reported 172 hydrocarbon discoveries, including 62 in offshore areas. Puri highlighted the geological significance of the AN basin, which lies at the junction of the Andaman and Nicobar Basins within the Bengal-Arakan sedimentary system. The tectonic setting, located at the boundary of the Indian and Burmese plates, has led to the formation of numerous stratigraphic traps that are conducive to hydrocarbon accumulation. This geological promise is further amplified by the basin's proximity to proven petroleum systems in Myanmar and North Sumatra. The region has attracted renewed global interest following significant gas discoveries in South Andaman offshore Indonesia, underlining the geological continuity across the region, the minister explained. In a significant development, ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have launched an ambitious exploration campaign in the Andaman ultra-deepwater region. For the first time, drilling operations are targeting depths of up to 5,000 metres. One such wildcat well, ANDW-7, drilled in a carbonate play in the East Andaman Back Arc region, has yielded encouraging geological insights. These include traces of light crude and condensate in cutting samples, heavy hydrocarbons like C-5 neo-pentane in trip gases, the minister further stated. These findings establish, for the first time, the existence of an active thermogenic petroleum system in the region, comparable to those in Myanmar and North Sumatra. While commercial reserves remain to be established, this campaign has validated the presence of a working petroleum system and laid the foundation for focused exploration in the area, the minister said. Providing an overview of the exploration outcomes so far, the Minister informed that ONGC has made hydrocarbon discoveries in 20 blocks, with an estimated reserve of 75 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent (MMTOE). Oil India Ltd., on its part, has made seven oil and gas discoveries over the past four years, with reserves estimated at 9.8 million barrels of oil and 2,706.3 million standard cubic meters of gas.
The Hindu
4 hours ago
- The Hindu
Rajya Sabha has vacancies from J&K during Vice-Presidential poll for second consecutive time
The four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir will remain vacant during the Vice Presidential election. The members of Parliament from both the Houses will elect the 17th Vice-President on September 9. Also read | NDA leaders authorise PM, Nadda to pick alliance candidate for Vice-President The four seats from the Union Territory are vacant as the Election Commission has so far not held biennial polls to fill up the vacancies nearly 10 months after Assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir. MLAs elect Rajya Sabha members of their respective States. The Union Territory has been unrepresented in the Upper House of Parliament since February 15, 2021, the day when Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway finished their terms. Two other members, Fayaz Ahmed Mir and Shamsheer Singh Manhas, had completed their terms on February 10, the same year. Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was elected as the Vice-President in 2022, quit on July 21, citing health issues. His term was till August 2027. The Vice-President is elected by the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, with nominated members of the Upper House also eligible to vote. At present, there are no nominated members in the Lok Sabha. The 543-member Lok Sabha has one vacant seat — Basirhat in West Bengal — while there are six vacancies in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. Of the six vacancies in the Rajya Sabha, four are from Jammu and Kashmir, and one each from Punjab and Jharkhand. The seat from Punjab fell vacant after AAP leader Sanjeev Arora quit following his election to the State Assembly in a recent bypoll. The demise of JMM leader Shibu Soren has created a fresh vacancy in the Upper House from Jharkhand. The effective strength of both the Houses together is 781 and the winning candidate will require 391 votes, considering that all eligible voters exercise their franchise. In the Lok Sabha, the BJP-led NDA enjoys the support of 293 of the 542 members. The ruling alliance has the support of 129 members in the Rajya Sabha, which has an effective strength of 240, assuming that the nominated members vote in support of the NDA nominee. Thus, the ruling alliance has the support of around 422 members. Article 66 (1) of the Constitution provides that the Vice-Presidential election shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, and the voting at such an election shall be by secret ballot. In this system, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates. The Vice-President is the second-highest constitutional office in the country. He serves for a five-year term, but can continue to be in office, irrespective of the expiry of the term, until the successor assumes office.
Hindustan Times
5 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
INDIA bloc MPs to march from Parliament to Election Commission tomorrow over ‘vote chori' claims
MPs from the INDIA bloc, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, will march from Parliament to the Election Commission on Monday to protest what they allege is 'vote chori' (vote theft) through the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Opposition INDIA bloc MPs protest in Parliament against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar during the Monsoon Session. (PTI File) Sources said the alliance's floor leaders are also expected to meet the Election Commissioners to formally register their objections. The march is expected to begin from Parliament at around 11.30 am. The Opposition's protest comes days after Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP, citing a Congress analysis of the Mahadevapura assembly seat in Karnataka, where he alleged that nearly one lakh votes were 'stolen'. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi reiterated his allegations of 'vote chori' (vote theft) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, stressing that a 'clean' voter roll is essential for free and fair polls. Linking the issue to a broader fight to 'protect' democracy, the Congress MP said on X, 'Vote chori is an attack on the foundational idea of 'one man, one vote'. A clean voter roll is imperative for free and fair elections. Our demand from the EC is clear — be transparent and release digital voter rolls so that people and parties can audit them. This fight is to protect our democracy.' Congress general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal likened the fight against alleged voter list manipulation to a 'do-or-die' mission to save Indian democracy, and said the party will discuss its next steps in the nationwide campaign at an upcoming meeting. 'Just as Bapu gave us the 'Do or Die' call during the Quit India movement, we today must embark upon a similar do-or-die mission to save Indian democracy,' Venugopal wrote on X. He said that the party will hold a meeting of its general secretaries, in-charges, and frontal organisation heads on August 11, chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, to plan the next phase of its nationwide campaign against alleged voter list manipulation and election fraud.
