India News | Highways Construction Has Seen Sharp Rise During Pandemic Period: Gadkari

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said national highways construction has seen sharp rise during the COVID-19 pandemic restriction period.

The road transport and highways minister further said in 2020-21, the highways construction pace reached 36.5 km/day, the highest-ever construction speed for national highways.

In a series of tweets, Gadkari said India also created a world record by constructing a 2.5 km four-lane concrete road in just 24 hours, and 26-km single-lane bitumen road in just 21 hours.

He said special efforts have been made to sustain this speed of construction, which includes support to contractors, relaxation in contract provisions, direct payment to sub-contractors and food and medical facilities to on-site workers.

To ensure quality control in these projects, construction is being carried out as per highest Indian Roads Congress (IRC) standards and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) specifications.

He also said a quality control zone has been set up to update policy guidelines as well as examine and issue directions for system improvement on quality.

(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)