By IANS,
Kozhikode : The Kerala government said Friday that 837 km of national highways in the state will be widened to four-lane roads.
“The project report on this is being prepared by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and will be ready by Aug 15,” Public Works Minister Mons Joseph told reporters here.
National highways 17 and 47 will be developed on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The minister said it would be the responsibility of the state government to find the land for the road development. The central government would bear the cost of land acquisition and construction.
The minister also said that the NHAI is undertaking a feasibility study on developing six other national highways passing through Kerala. However, the government has not yet taken a decision whether these roads need to be widened.
He said the Kerala government will open quality control cells in all the districts in the state to monitor the quality of road construction. “At present we have only a small facility for this in the public works department,” he added.