FM Nirmala Sitharaman announces Rs 25,000 crore for highways in poll-bound West Bengal

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday, announced Rs 25,000 crore for highways in poll-bound West Bengal. Proposing highway infra work including awarding 8,500-km of highways by March 2022, FM Sitharaman further announced highway projects in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Assam.

"675 km of highway works in the state of West Bengal at a cost of Rs 25,000 crores including upgradation of existing road-Kolkata - Siliguri," FM Sitharaman said in her budget speech.

"To further augment road infrastructure, 8,500 km of road and highway projects will be awarded by March 2022," she stated.

"3,500 km of National Highway works in the state of Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. These include the Madurai-Kollam corridor, Chittoor-Thatchur corridor. Construction will start next year," the finance minister added.

Also Read: Budget 2021 Live Updates: No relief for middle class as I-T slabs remain unchanged; govt focuses on health, infra boost

She also announced highway projects amounting to Rs 65,000 crore that will be undertaken in Kerala.

"1,100 km of National Highway works in the State of Kerala at an investment of Rs 65,000 crores including 600 km section of Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor in Kerala.

FM Sitharaman also announced an allocation of Rs 34,000 crore for road projects in Assam. She also announced an Rs 18,000-crore scheme to augment public transport in urban areas.

"National Highway works of around Rs 19,000 crores are currently in progress in the state of Assam. Further works of more than Rs 34,000 crore covering more than 1,300 kms of National Highways will be undertaken in the State in the coming three years," she further stated.

Also Read: Budget 2021: Agri cess of Rs 2.5 per litre on petrol, Rs 4 on diesel

Last month, Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Minister Nitin Gadkari had said his ministry aims at taking road building target to 40 km a day by March. He added that NHAI has a target of building 60,000 km of highways in the next five years, including 2,500 km of express highways.

These include 9,000 km of economic corridors and 2,000 km each of strategic border roads and coastal roads. Besides these, 100 tourist destinations and 45 towns would be connected through highways.