Bhubaneswar, May 15 (PTI) The Centre has approved national highway projects worth Rs 13,000 crore in Odisha during the ongoing 2025-26 fiscal, a state minister said on Thursday.

Out of those projects, the Odisha government has set a target to complete road construction work to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore by September, Works Minister Prithviraj Harichandan said here.

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“We have to expedite the pace of construction work. We have set a target to make an expenditure of Rs 2,000 crore by September. If we complete the projects on time, we can get (a total of) Rs 13,000 crore (worth highway projects) from the Union government and create a new record on construction of national highways in the state,” he asserted.

Harichandan also expressed confidence that Odisha will be able to add to its national highways network more than what the state had achieved in the last five years.

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Commenting on the national highway project connecting Sambalpur and Cuttack, he said it got delayed due to financial issues of the executing agency.

“Now, the issue has been resolved and the work is almost complete, barring some portions. I am confident that the remaining work... will be completed by the end of this year,” the minister said.

The project, which began in 2017, had an initial completion target by 2020.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)