The Centre has approved a railway overbridge at Matiapada on the Puri-Konark road with an investment of around Rs. 138 crore. The project, which will enable a hassle-free movement of tourists from Puri town to Konark, will be taken up in EPC mode.

Bridge projects worth Rs. 154 crore have been sanctioned by the Centre in tribal-dominated and Maoist-affected Malkangiri district. The amount will be invested for the reconstruction of five submersible bridges replacing them with high-level bridges on NH-326 between Malkangiri town and Motu.

The Central government has sanctioned the construction of two national highways within the erstwhile Adilabad district. One of them will connect Mancherial and Warangal, while the other will be from Bhainsa to Medak. A detailed project report has been submitted and final clearance is expected soon.

The 82-km Phase 2 and 4 of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway has been opened for the public. The expressway will cut the travel time between the cities from two hours to about 50 minutes. The expressway is lit by solar power and has a 2.5-m wide cycle track and 2-m wide footpath.

A six-lane bridge is being built on National Highway 66 at Kulur across River Phalguni. The work of clearing and grubbing has begun. The bridge, which will be the widest in coastal Karnataka, will be built between the two current bridges. The contract has been bagged by Pune-based Shindhe Developers Pvt Ltd at a cost of Rs. 70 crore.

NHAI is planning to develop a grid of world-class wayside amenities along national highways and expressways at 600 locations in the next five years in public private partnership (PPP) mode. As per the plan, a total of about 3,000 hectares of land alongside both greenfield and existing alignments will be developed.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to award 2,000 km of highway projects in the current financial year, taking the total length to around 4,350 km in the current fiscal ending March 31. NHAI is also ramping up the pipeline of highway projects to be awarded in the first quarter of FY2021-2022.

As part of widening the Madurai-Kollam Highway into a four-lane road, the work on the Tirumangalam-Rajapalayam stretch will begin soon. Land acquisition for the 72-km stretch of the Tirumangalam-Rajapalayam section is at an advanced stage. The tender process will begin soon for the work to be taken up at a cost of Rs. 1,600 crore.

The foundation stone has been laid for two national highway projects in Karnataka, to be built at a cost of Rs. 323 crore. The projects are construction of an elevated corridor at Rani Chennamma Circle in Hubballi city and four-lane road and minor bridge near Dastikoppa Kalaghatgi Tq on NH 63.