NEW DELHI: The road transport and highways ministry will add nearly 50,000 km of roads to the National Highways (NH) network in the country in the next six months. This addition within two years of the Narendra Modi government will be more than twice the length NDA-I had added in its six years and over three times of what UPA added in its 10-year rule.

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Sources said in the past 15 months, the new government has added about 7,000 km of roads to the NH length and at present it’s little more than one lakh km. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has announced to take it to 1.5 lakh km by this year end.

Between 1998 and 2004 when the NDA was in power, about 23,814 km was added to the NH network and during the 10-year rule of the UPA government , a total of around 18,000 km were designated as NH.

On how the ministry is now going about including more stretches as NH, an official said, “While process of notification to include about 15,000 km under Bharat Mala and joining backward areas in the NH network is under way, we are carrying out feasibility study for large chunk of stretches that states have forwarded for upgrading them as NHs. This would be about 20,000 km.”

Sources said adding length is crucial to maintain the pace of award, which has been increased to about 30 km a day. Putting its focus to accelerate highway construction as growth multiplier, the Modi government plans to continue this high target of award of works for 3-4 years. “Moreover, ideally most of the major roads connecting districts, upcoming business hubs and even religious and tourist places should be connected with at least two-and-half lane roads,” a ministry official said.

However, there is also a flip side to it. Converting more stretches of state highways or major district roads to NHs will increase burden on the Central budget as states will stop spending on maintenance of these stretches as soon as the corridors are notified as NHs.

Some of the officials said the situation won’t get out of government control as most of the stretches being expanded now are on a model named “EPC contracts”. Under this, the contractor has to maintain the road for one year and is also responsible for any defect for four years. “So, there will be almost no government outgo for maintenance and all these stretches will be under the toll mode. The contractor who gets the work will maintain the stretches. The amount saved can be utilized for maintaining new stretches,” the official said.