Nitin Gadkari says, India's highway infrastructure to match US by 2024

India's highways infrastructure will match that of the US by 2024 for which work in time bound 'mission mode' is on including construction of green expressways and rail over bridges, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

He said cabinet nod to Bharatmala 2 is likely soon and once obtained it will meet the requirements of a robust infrastructure in the country.

I am confident that India's highways will be on par with that of the US by 2024. Work in a time bound mission mode is on to build a robust infrastructure including a network of green expressways across the length and breadth of India.

The Road Transport and Highways Minister said in this year railway over bridges are being constructed at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore which will be increased to Rs 50,000 crore in five years.

On the Kailash Mansarovar highway project via Pithoragarh, Gadkari said Ninety three per cent work on Kailash Mansarovar project has been completed.

With the completion of this project, the arduous trek through treacherous high-altitude terrain can be avoided by pilgrims of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and the period of journey will be reduced by many days.

At present, travel to Kailash Mansarovar takes around two to three weeks through Sikkim or Nepal routes. On Bharatmala Phase 2, the minister said: "Nod is likely soon to Bharatmala Phase 2 that will further accelerate the making of highways.

About 5,000 km of highway network is envisaged under phase 2 initially. Bharatmala Pariyojana is India's largest infrastructure programme to develop about 35,000 km of National Highway corridors, connecting over 580 districts in the nation. The programme signalled a paradigm shift to corridor approach of infrastructure development.