The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) completed a single-lane* out of the four-lane stretch of 25.54 km being developed between Solapur-Vijapur (NH 52) in 18 hours. The construction of the 110 km stretch on the Solapur-Bijapur highway is in progress and the same will get completed by October 2021. Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari shared this update on social media platform Twitter.
While congratulating the leasing company for achieving this feat in a record number of hours, Gadkari said that 500 employees of the company were a part of this achievement and have worked hard for it. Currently, the 110 km of Solapur-Vijapur highway work is in progress and will be completed by October 2021.
The feat achieved by the contractor Patel Infrastructure entered the India Book of Records and Golden Book of World Records. They are an established contractor for roads and highways, bridges, mining projects and other ancillary services. The said highway is part of the greenfield Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai eight-lane Expressway project and was carried out by the world’s largest fully automatic ultra-modern concrete paver machine.
The NHAI is working on various other such projects to reduce travel time during commute and keeping road safety as its priority. It has also tied up with 200 technical institutes and is encouraging them for voluntary adoption of highway stretches for research, etc. So far, 18 IITs, 27 NITs and 207 other reputed engineering colleges have agreed to this proposal and have signed the MoU. The feat achieved by the contractor Patel Infrastructure entered the India Book of Records and Golden Book of World Records.
With the completion of the said stretch, the travel time will cut down significantly. Also, keep in mind the fact that well-built highways eventually help in extracting better fuel efficiency from your vehicle, given the smoother flow of traffic. As a result of this, the wear & tear of the parts on your vehicle is also reduced that eventually results in lower maintenance costs of the vehicle. A good highway also enhances the transport system and makes it more efficient. In addition to cutting down on the travel time, good and well-built highways also make the journey safer. On a broader scale, highways contribute to the economy of a nation as a smoother expressway will offer a direct or indirect benefit to multiple sectors.
* Single-lane roads have a one lane for traffic in both directions, when vehicles meet one must pull off the road to let the other pass.