Acquire land for road projects in time-bound manner: CM to officials

During the meeting, CM Shinde directed the officials that the works of national highways, flyovers, roads that are ongoing and approved in the state should be completed in a time bound manner by removing the hurdles and also instructed the forest department officials to take necessary action for the repair work of the existing roads within the boundaries of the forests on a priority basis.

Shinde said that several projects of roads, highways and flyovers are going on in the state through the National Highway Authority of India(NHAI) to give a boost for urbanisation and to create infrastructure facilities in the state, but at the same time, the land acquisition and forest department’s approval for some projects are pending and projects are stalled.

Since it is necessary to give pace to these approvals for the development of Maharashtra, the chief minister instructed the authorities concerned to acquire the land for the projects in a time- bound manner, to avoid escalation of the project cost.

Meanwhile, Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, said that the central government has announced a vehicle scrapping policy for vehicles older than 15 years and appealed that Maharashtra should start scrapping units in every district as soon as possible .

Gadkari suggested starting at least 150 to 200 units across the state and said that at least 10,000 to 15,000 people will get employment because of this.