New Delhi: Union Road Transport and Highways Secretary Giridhar Aramane On Monday, government departments, which control large tracts of surplus land, were urged to drop their “zamindar” (landlords) attitude. He was referring to cases where government agencies do not agree to transfer or share surplus land for development and utility purposes by other departments.
Presiding over a discussion on “Enabling for Logistics Efficiency”, Armane said government departments should continue to “demolish silos” and ensure that no discretionary powers are vested in the bureaucracy with lower levels.
He said that the main objective of the Government’s Gatishakti program is ease of doing business and ease of living. Armane said there is a dire need to “remove panic” among various ministries and departments to achieve these goals.
Despite the fact that all the land is acquired by the central government agencies in the name of the President, there are many instances of various departments fighting and negotiating among themselves on land issues.
Earlier, giving a detailed presentation on the plans for major infrastructure development, officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that the agency will launch two major connectivity programmes. The first, Bharatmala-II, will be a new 8,000 km highway development program with an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore and a “greenfield” or new alignment project.
Some of the parts identified under Bharatmala-II include: Pune-Bengaluru, Chennai-TrichyVaranasi-Kolkata, Gorakhpur-Siliguri and Hyderabad-Bengaluru.
The second major program will be for ropeways and around 50 projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore have been prepared to provide connectivity in the hill states. Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur Proposals have been sent for ropeway projects.
Officials said that this work can be done along with the ongoing projects under Bharatmala-1. The first phase was set to eliminate the original deadline of 2022–23, considering “major changes” to the program than envisaged. The revised estimate for Bharatmala-I, which includes development of 34,800 km of national highways, has nearly doubled to Rs 10.25 lakh crore due to several changes in the highway development programme.
Sources said that as per the original plan, 60% of the identified stretches were to be developed as at least four-lane corridors or more and the remaining 40% as two-and-a-half-lane stretches. But now around 90% of the entire network under Bharatmala-I is being developed as four-lane or more.
Presiding over a discussion on “Enabling for Logistics Efficiency”, Armane said government departments should continue to “demolish silos” and ensure that no discretionary powers are vested in the bureaucracy with lower levels.
He said that the main objective of the Government’s Gatishakti program is ease of doing business and ease of living. Armane said there is a dire need to “remove panic” among various ministries and departments to achieve these goals.
Despite the fact that all the land is acquired by the central government agencies in the name of the President, there are many instances of various departments fighting and negotiating among themselves on land issues.
Earlier, giving a detailed presentation on the plans for major infrastructure development, officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that the agency will launch two major connectivity programmes. The first, Bharatmala-II, will be a new 8,000 km highway development program with an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore and a “greenfield” or new alignment project.
Some of the parts identified under Bharatmala-II include: Pune-Bengaluru, Chennai-TrichyVaranasi-Kolkata, Gorakhpur-Siliguri and Hyderabad-Bengaluru.
The second major program will be for ropeways and around 50 projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore have been prepared to provide connectivity in the hill states. Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur Proposals have been sent for ropeway projects.
Officials said that this work can be done along with the ongoing projects under Bharatmala-1. The first phase was set to eliminate the original deadline of 2022–23, considering “major changes” to the program than envisaged. The revised estimate for Bharatmala-I, which includes development of 34,800 km of national highways, has nearly doubled to Rs 10.25 lakh crore due to several changes in the highway development programme.
Sources said that as per the original plan, 60% of the identified stretches were to be developed as at least four-lane corridors or more and the remaining 40% as two-and-a-half-lane stretches. But now around 90% of the entire network under Bharatmala-I is being developed as four-lane or more.