Government targets road construction worth Rs 15 lakh crore in next 2 years

New Delhi: The Centre is giving utmost priority to the development of infrastructure and has set a target of road construction worth Rs 15 lakh crore in the next two years.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari made the announcement on Friday while addressing the Indo-US Partnership Vision Summit through video conferencing.

The Minister was confident that his ministry will achieve target of 40 kilometres per day of highways construction in current fiscal, saying "the government is permitting 100 per FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in road sector".

In India, Gadkari said, projects like National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) for 2019-2025 is the first-of-its-kind and the government is committed to provide world class infra to its citizens and improving quality of their lives.

He said that under the NIP, there are over 7,300 projects to be implemented at a total outlay of Rs 111 lakh crore by year 2025 and that the project aims at improving project preparation, and attract investment into infrastructure like highways, railways, ports, airports, mobility, energy and agriculture and rural industry.

"In the new era of bilateral relations, the national interests of India and the United States are converging and there is growing confidence between both the administrations that all outstanding trade issues will be resolved and major trade agreements will be signed soon.

The Minister invited the US companies to invest in infrastructure and MSME sectors in India."