The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has reviewed the progress of National High-Speed Corridors and Greenfield Expressways through a regular monitoring framework at the project, State, and Central levels. The review matters for UPSC because highway expansion is not only an infrastructure story; it also reflects how land acquisition, environmental clearance, and inter-ministerial coordination affect project execution.

What happened now

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the Government has established a framework for regular review of all ongoing National Highway works, including National High-Speed Corridors and Greenfield Expressways. The Government said the framework involves stakeholders, including the concerned State Governments.

The Government also said that it has taken process reforms to speed up execution. These include the Bhoomi Rashi portal and a GIS-based Land Acquisition Plan for land acquisition, the revamped Parivesh portal for forest and environmental clearances, online approval of General Arrangement of Drawings (GAD) for Road Over Bridge/Road Under Bridge projects from Indian Railways, and a mechanism for review and resolution of bottlenecks in ongoing projects.

Status of the corridor programme

The Government said that a large share of the corridor network has already been awarded, while a substantial part remains under implementation. The project status therefore shows a classic execution challenge: award of work has progressed faster than physical completion.

Related current affairs