Stuck Rs 1.8 lakh crore road projects to be launched by 15 Aug, says Gadkari

Stalled highways projects worth Rs 1,80,000 crore will be rolled out in a month’s span after ironing out hurdles like delays in land acquisition and green nods, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. Blaming the previous regime for award of projects ‘without acquiring even 10% of the required land’ and causing hardships for road sector, Gadkari also announced that steps were on to launch new projects worth 2 lakh crore soon. ‘As many as 189 projects with a cost of Rs 1,80,000 crore are stuck due to problems in land acquisition, delays in forest and environment clearances, non-transfer of defence land and hurdles in rail overbridges... hurdles will be removed by 15 August and work will start on these,’ he said.