NEW DELHI: The road transport and highways ministry has prepared a draft Cabinet note on the Rs 2.6-lakh crore Bharat Mala project that envisages construction of 25,000 km of roads along India’s borders, coastal areas, ports, religious and tourist places as well as over 100 district headquarters.The note also proposes to bring under the project all of the ministry’s road construction schemes including Setu Bharatam, Char Dham Connectivity and National Highways Development Programme. The note will be finalised and placed before the Cabinet soon. The ministry aims to complete the project by 2022. “After getting comments from the Prime Minister’s Office and finance ministry, we decided to cover all existing roads connectivity schemes under it.It will be an umbrella project now,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity. The government plans to construct over 50,000 km of roads over the next five years, which will extend the country’s highway network to 1.5 lakh km. The government will fund most of the Bharat Mala project but some works under it can also be taken up in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.The government can also take soft loans from multilateral funding agencies to cover some of the cost, the official said. Roads construction has been among the top priorities of the Narendra Modi-led government. It allocated Rs 42,000 crore for road and highway construction in the 2015-16 Budget. The roads ministry is seeking Rs 62,000 crore from the finance ministry in the budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.