Bangalore, Nov 25 (IANS) The central government plans to build expressways connecting major cities of the country for speedy movement of passengers, goods and freight, a minister said here Wednesday.
“We are in the process of setting up an Expressway Authority of India (EAI) on the lines of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to build about 17,000 km of expressways between major cities such as Mumbai-Bangalore and Bangalore-Chennai for high-speed traffic for passenger cars, buses and trucks,” Minister of Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath told reporters here.

The ministry has already set up an expressway division a fortnight ago in the NHAI and will approach parliament for a legislation to constitute the EAI.

The cost of expressways is estimated to be about Rs.20-22 crore per km.

The expressways will be greenfield and built in collaboration with state governments, which have to acquire and provide additional land, shift utilities and other amenities coming in the way.

“Along the expressways, integrated and satellite townships can be built to decongest cities and create opportunities for uniform growth of urban areas,” Nath said on the margins of a trade fair on the outskirts of the city.

The minister has also decided to call for a meeting of state road transport and highways ministers in December to discuss all outstanding issues for the speedy construction of national highways and expressways with adequate support facilities.

“The agenda will be to resolve all outstanding issues, especially the process of land acquisition, which is a major constraint in accelerating the construction of highways to achieve a target of 20 km per day,” Nath said.

The other issues to be discussed are road safety, awareness, enforcement and regulation to minimise accidents on highways.

“If you have regulation and don’t have enforcement, how can we avoid accidents? Awareness of road safety, observing rules and having road sense are pre-requisites for inculcating road culture,” Nath said after inaugurating the fifth international construction equipment and construction technology trade fair (Excon 2009) at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre.