Aiming at facilitating movement of pilgrims and boosting tourism in the hilly regions, the Road and Transport Ministry has undertaken construction of 825 km of all weather road network connecting Chardham and a section of Kailas-Mansorovar route.
According to the Ministry, improvement of five National Highways (NHs) connecting Chardham — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath including Tanakpur to Pithoragarh section of Kailas- Mansarovar yatra covering a total length of 825 km is being undertaken in the State of Uttarakhand.
The Ministry maintains that currently road construction of about 610 km has been completed.
The total length of Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor is about 213 km which was awarded at the cost of about Rs 6,392 crore and has present progress of 30.7 per cent.
Allocation for development of NHs is made State-wise and not NH-wise. Expenditure of about Rs 3,520 crore was incurred for development of NHs in the State of Uttarakhand in the Financial Year 2022-23.
Ministry maintains that sevelopment of NHs is a continuous process which is taken up based on traffic demand, safety requirements, availability of funds and inter-se priority. Time period for completion of NH projects is generally two to three years.
National Highway projects including those in the State of Uttarakhand mainly get delayed due to reasons such as delay in land acquisition, forest clearance, tree cutting, utility shifting, contractual issues, litigation and slow progress of contractors.
Ministry keeps on receiving proposals from various State Governments/Union Territories (UTs), etc., including from the State of Uttarakhand, for declaration/upgradation of State roads as new NHs.
Road and Transport Ministry considers declaration of some of the State roads as NHs from time to time based on the requirements of connectivity and availability of funds.