- By Aalok Sensharma
- Sat, 18 Jan 2020 03:00 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran Business Desk: The government might increase allocation of funds to the highway sector by about Rs 10,000 crore in the Budget for the next fiscal, a government source -- quoted by news agency PTI -- said.
The country has an ambitious highways building programme. Under the Bharatmala project, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has identified stretches for development of about 26,200 km length of economic corridors, 8,000 km of inter corridors, 7,500 km of feeder routes, 5,300 km border and international connectivity roads, 4,100 km coastal and port connectivity roads and 1,900 km expressways in near future.
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"We expect the budgetary allocation for the highways sector to increase by Rs 8,000-10,000 crore," a government source, quoted by PTI, said.
In the last budget, the allocation for the highway sector was about Rs 83,000 crore and the government had said that going beyond incremental growth, India has attained the fastest growth in highways building at 27 km a day and is all set for a quantum leap in transport infrastructure.
At present, the road building pace has reached about 30 km a day.
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The Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I project was approved by the government in October 2017. I aggregate a length of about 34,800 km (including 10,000 km residual NHDP stretches) at an estimated outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh crore.
Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I is targeted for completion in 2021-22.
The government will present the first full time budget since its re-election in 2019 on February 1. This is the second time 2015 when the budget will be presented on a Saturday.
The idea behind starting the budget in in February is to complete the process by March 31 so that expenditure exercise for 12 months could begin on April 1.
Earlier, PM Modi had sought to directly engage with people for their demands, aspirations and wishes from the Union Budget in reaching towards developmental growth.
"The Union Budget represents the aspirations of 130 crore Indians and lays out the path towards India's development. I invite you all to share your ideas and suggestions for this year's Budget on MyGov," he had said.
(With PTI inputs)