Nitin Gadkari: India made world record for fastest road construction
Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari told the media that India now holds the world record for fastest road construction.
The minister said India made some world records in road construction recently—a one-lane 25 km bitumen Solapur-Bijapur road constructed within 24 hours, entered the Guinness World Records by building a 2.5 km four-lane concrete road within 24 hours.
In February, Patel Infrastructure Ltd, a contractor of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), created a world record by laying the highest quantity of concrete on a four-lane highway in 24 hours.
The record was set for laying of Pavement Quality Concrete (PQC) for a four-lane highway of 2,580 meters in length within 24 hours. Starting at 8 am on 1 February 2021, they finished the job, totalling 2,580 meters X 4 lane, which is approximately 10.32 lane km, by 8 am the next morning. With a width of 18.75 m, as much an area as 48,711 sq m of concrete was laid for the expressway in 24 hours.
The highest quantity of concrete laid in 24 hours, 14,613 cubic meters, was achieved. It was part of the greenfield Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai eight-lane expressway project.
Another NHAI contractor completed a single lane of the four-lane stretch of 25.54 km being developed between Solapur-Vijapur (NH-52) in 18 hours. Hyderabad-based construction company IJM India carried out the construction work, according to the media.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has constructed 13,394 km of highways in the fiscal year 2020-21. Gadkari said that the pace of highway construction in the country touched a record 37 km per day in FY21.
According to Gadkari, the cumulative cost of ongoing project works has increased by 54% at the end of FY21, compared to FY20 (as of 31 March).
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