New Delhi, June 8 (IANS) The government will award contracts for 7,300 km of national highways during the current financial year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday.
‘Roads are a vital infrastructure, and despite improvements, the sector still needs efforts to upgrade the quality as well as length of India’s national highway network,’ Manmohan Singh said at a meeting to review the roads sector.
The government will also introduce e-tendering in August, and will launch project monitoring through satellite imagery from September this year.
The prime minister also directed special attention to projects in areas with poor connectivity, especially Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast and Maoist affected areas.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Minister for Road Transport and Highways C.P. Joshi and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, among others.
