Gadkari calls marathon meeting to review stuck highway projects

New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari will hold a two-day-long marathon review of ongoing road projects from January 23 to 34. The focus would be on national highway projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore that are stuck, an official statement from the ministry said on Wednesday.

"The progress of about 500 projects especially struck/delay projects will be taken up during the meeting. These projects involve a cost of about Rs 3 lakh crore," the ministry of road transport and highways said in a statement on Wednesday.

Stuck highway projects of South & Central zone to be reviewed on Jan 23

Stuck projects of South Zone (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Pondicherry, Karnataka) and Central Zone (Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat) will be reviewed on Thursday, while the projects of Haryana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal will be taken up on Friday, the ministry said.

The projects in the states of Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa will be taken up at a later stage.

Meeting meant to iron out issues

Around 600 stakeholders including concessionaires, contractors, bankers and concerned officials of Union Governments and its departments or organisations, state National Highway division, state PWD Departments, among others will be attending the review meeting.

"This meeting is an important platform for ironing out issues and exploring the way forward for pending projects and helps in expediting the implementation," the statement said. Gadkari has already reviewed projects of North-Eastern States, in a separate meeting held in the first week of January.