Madhya Pradesh
The Indian Government has laid foundation stones for 45 highway projects in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Credit: Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash.

The Indian Government has inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 45 highway projects worth Rs114.2bn ($1.5bn) in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

All these projects have a total road length of 1,361km.

The state is expected to have an advanced highways network in the next two years, following the completion of projects worth Rs500bn ($6.7bn).

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said: “The face of Madhya Pradesh will change in two years from now as far as world-class highways network is concerned. Highway projects entailing an investment of Rs1.25tn ($16.8bn) are underway in the state at present.

“About 70% work of projects worth Rs300bn ($4bn) have been completed. Our target is to complete projects worth Rs500bn ($6.7bn) by 2023.”

The minister inaugurated 26 projects on a combined 992km of roads, worth Rs88.1bn ($1.1bn). Meanwhile, foundation stones of 19 projects for building 369km of highways costing Rs26bn ($350m) were also laid.

The proposed Chambal Expressway worth Rs800bn ($10bn) will provide connectivity with the Golden Quadrilateral’s Delhi-Kolkata corridor, North-South Corridor, East-West Corridor and Delhi-Mumbai-Expressway.

This expressway is expected to impact people living in areas of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and generate employment opportunities.

Another proposed Delhi-Mumbai expressway project will be worth Rs1tn ($13.4bn).

Once complete, the expressway will reduce the travel time from Delhi to Mumbai to 12 hours. Construction of the infrastructure project is scheduled to conclude by 2023.

Construction and widening of roads will increase connectivity while saving time and fuel.

The government also announced two logistics parks at Indore and Jabalpur on a build, operate and transfer basis.