Mumbai, July 6 -- The Union Cabinet approved two major road infrastructure projects with a combined cost of Rs 141.15 bn, including a tunnel in Delhi and a highway section in Uttar Pradesh. The approvals aim to ease congestion and improve connectivity in the national capital. One project comprises an eight-point-one-km six-lane tunnel on NH-148AE linking the Dwarka Expressway with Nelson Mandela Marg in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, at an estimated cost of Rs 69.70 bn. The tunnel is designed to reduce travel times and relieve surface traffic along the corridor.
The Cabinet also cleared the 117.7-km four/six-lane access-controlled Kanpur-Kabrai section of NH-34 in Uttar Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 71.45 bn, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The highway project is expected to strengthen north-south connectivity within the state and support freight movement. Officials said the projects will be executed under central road construction frameworks and are subject to environmental and land clearances.
The approvals were announced alongside a Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation report that highlighted execution challenges for large infrastructure schemes. The report indicated that projects with a threshold cost of Rs 1.5 bn each have registered cumulative cost overruns amounting to about Rs 5.4 tn. It also detailed that project monitoring continues across multiple ministries as the government seeks to address delays and budget pressures. The Cabinet briefing made no policy change on the ethanol blending programme.
The monitoring data showed 1,987 ongoing projects across 17 ministries, with revised cost rising to Rs 42.50 tn from Rs 37.09 tn and cumulative expenditure at Rs 21.82 tn, or 51.34 per cent of the revised cost; 817 projects have reached more than 80 per cent physical progress. The government rejected media accounts that misrepresented the state of the 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol programme and the Ministry of Law and Justice described the reports as false. Further implementation details are expected through routine ministry updates.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Construction World.