The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will achieve a highest-ever four lane and access-controlled high-speed highways, reaching an ambitious road construction target of 13,000 km, achieving a run rate of 35 km by this fiscal end. In 2020-21, the highest-ever road construction of 13,327 km was done as compared to 4,260 km in 2013-14. As of January this year, 7,600 km of roads have been completed and can reach a 12,800-13,000 km by March end. Following the ongoing pace, the Gadkari-headed department will be able to lay over 35 km of roads every day. Nearly 90 per cent basic work has been completed and the ministry is optimistic of touching the target in the last two months. The Centre plans to develop 50,000 km of access-controlled highways by 2037. Contact: MoRTH Website: www.morth.nic.in Now, GPS-based highway toll collection system to be introduced Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister, Road Transport and Highways said that the government will soon come out with a tender to introduce a GPS-based highway toll collection system on national highways to replace toll plazas in the country. Pilot projects, of automatic number plate reader cameras, to enable automated toll collection without stopping vehicles have been conducted. In 2018-19, average waiting time at toll plaza was 8 minutes and with introduction of FASTags in 2020-21 and 2021-22, the average waiting time of vehicles reduced to 47 seconds. JICA extends Rs 28.09 billion loan for Chennai road project The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said it has signed a loan agreement amounting to about Rs 28.09 billion for construction of the second phase of the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road Project. The Chennai Peripheral Ring Road is one of the priority projects in the ‘Comprehensive Integrated Master Plan for the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (2015)’ based on an agreement between the Government of Japan and Government of India. The project’s objective is to meet the rapidly increasing traffic demand in Chennai, ease congestion and reduce the transportation time by about 40 minutes from Chennai and Ennore ports. 95,000 km of NH built in the last 10 years: Road Secretary Anurag Jain, Secretary, Road Transport and Highways, said that the road ministry has built around 92,000 km of national highways in nine-and-a-half years and this will go up to 95,000 km by the end of March 2024. He said that the focus going forward will be on building more high-speed access controlled highways. He said that the focus is on high-speed corridors and these are being built for the next 50 years, keeping in mind prospective congestion and increasing population needs. He said that it will help avoid construction of bypasses and redoing of roads. He added that most black spots on the national highways in the country will be covered up by the end of March 2025. Highways dept floats tender for four-lane Cauvery bridge The state highways department has floated a tender to construct a high-level bridge across Cauvery river connecting the Trichy mainland with Srirangam island. The state government has allocated Rs 1.06 billion for the bridge including compensation for land acquisition to develop approach roads. The four-lane bridge, which is likely to be 540 metres in length, will connect Melachinthamani (Trichy end) and Mambalasaalai (Srirangam end). It would come on the upstream side (west) of the river. Of the total fund allocated under the Comprehensive Road Infrastructure Development Programme (CRIDP), Rs 240 million has been reserved to pay compensation for private and government land to be acquired.