On Thursday, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that the Chennai-Bengaluru greenfield highway will most likely be finished by December of this year.
Responding to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Gadkari requested the Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments to assist the National Highway Authority of India in providing building materials such as aggregates and fly ash for projects in their respective states.
“I am giving the House confidence that we are doing everything we can to complete the roadway before December. “The distance between Chennai and Bengaluru can be covered in two hours,” the minister stated.
Gadkari stated that he had also spoken to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and conveyed to him the problems faced by the NHAI in the construction of highways in the state.
“I do not want to politicise the issue. But without getting aggregate, without getting all the things that we need for the road construction, how is it possible for us to complete the road,” Gadkari said in response to a question raised by DMK member Dayanidhi Maran.
He expressed readiness to discuss the issue with the officers of the state government and officials of NHAI to find a solution to the problems in speeding up the project.
On the NH-774 greenfield highway connecting Kollam in Kerala with Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Gadkari said the Kerala government had accepted the Centre’s proposal to bear 25 per cent of the land acquisition costs for the project, instead of 50 per cent as agreed earlier, and was also ready to forego the state GST of 9 per cent.
“He (Kerala CM) had accepted that but we are awaiting a formal reply from the Kerala government,” Gadkari said in response to a question by RSP member N K Premachandran.
“We need cooperation from the state governments, particularly the responsibilities related to the state governments regarding giving aggregate and other permissions for mining is very essential,” the minister said.
Premachandran also sought to know whether the Centre was ready to bear the entire cost to the project if the state government refused to contribute its share.
“The Chief Minister has agreed to our proposal. We are awaiting a formal reply from the Kerala government,” Gadkari said.
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