NEW DELHI, Aug 25: To boost investment in the road sector the government is considering a proposal to declare all state highways where traffic volume exceeds over 30,000 vehicles per day as national highways.Sources in the surface transport ministry have said that it has already identified 14 state highways qualifying for national highway status in the first lot.The announcement on these roads are likely to be made soon. Under this scheme 100 per cent loan assistance would be given to projects which have inter state characteristic, especially those roads that are connecting the National Highways and which are essential for communication.Also all the roads that need widening and those that can contribute materially to the rapid economic growth are being given priority.It may be mentioned that while inviting proposals from the State governments, they were informed that the proposals should satisfy the above criteria.Though the roads other than National Highways are essentially the responsibility of the concerned state governments, the Centre decided to consider these state proposals for financial assistance since they are of Inter state importance.It may be pertinent to point out that the allocation of funds for the Central sector programme in the *th Five year plan was very meagre and 300 proposals amounting to Rs 2300 crore have been received so far. However, due to the paucity of funds only 22 urgent proposals have been shortlisted and 14 on the basis of inter-se priority would be finalised.
