In a first of its kind, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Friday (6 May) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Uttar Pradesh’s State Rural Livelihood Mission to involve the self-help groups in taking up the plantations along the National Highways.
NHAI plans to expand this initiative to other states like Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Assam, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh.
The NHAI also signed an MoU with AMMANN India Pvt. Ltd to create a talent pool of highly skilled workforce, fully trained in advanced technologies in Highway construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance.
These MoUs were signed at a two-day regional conference organised by NHAI in Lucknow with participation from officials and other regional stakeholders from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar.
In Uttar Pradesh, NHAI has completed 31 projects of 2,100 km length worth Rs one lakh crore in the last eight years. The majority of these are either four or six-lane highways.
About 50 National Highway projects of about 2,200 km length worth Rs 73,000 crores are under implementation in the state.
The authority has plans to develop another 1,800 km with about Rs 63,000 crore in the next three to four years.