The Centre is working on 27 Green Express Highways to connect big cities including connecting Bengaluru to Mumbai and Chennai by environment-friendly pollution-free roads.
These Green Express Highways would transform the road travel between the two major cities of India.
“We are planning a Green Express Highway between Mumbai and Bengaluru. It will be a five-hour journey between Mumbai-Pune and between Pune and Bengaluru. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway will take a turn from near the Ring Road of Pune and join the Highway towards Bengaluru,’ Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a virtual address at the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI)’s 12th International Convention which was held in Mumbai.
‘By end of this year, there will be highways connecting Delhi-Dehradun in 2 hours, Delhi-Hardwar in two hours, Delhi-Jaipur in two hours, Delhi – Chandigarh in two and a half hours, Delhi – Amritsar in four, Delhi – Srinagar in eight hours, Delhi-Katra in six hours, Delhi-Mumbai in 10 hours, Chennai-Bengaluru in two hours and Lucknow- Kanpur in half-an-hour,’ he said.
According to him, Green Highway projects connecting Gorakhpur to Siliguri and Varanasi to Kolkata are also on the cards. After a period of 12-13 years, the investments will be fully recovered from those state highways along with interests and land acquisition costs, Gadkari said.
He urged that investments in the infrastructure sector of the country will be risk-free and yield good returns and called for cooperation in the investment for infrastructure.
‘The financial markets need to come up with innovative models to fund India’s infrastructure growth. We are inviting investments in the PPP model. We can export energy to the world if we channel our investments to waste management, green hydrogen, solar, and several such projects..innovation, entrepreneurship, science, and technology is the wealth of future India,’ he said.
