Road network in the country has witnessed over seven-fold increase to 3.89 lakh kilometres in the UPA-I and UPA-II regime, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today.
“In the year 2004, the country’s highway network was 51,511 km, which has now reached 3,89,578 km today,” >Chidambaram said in his Interim Budget speech.
“We have added highways and rural roads under the PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana),” Chidambaram said.
Pitching for higher allocation for the infrastructure sector, he said that there should be more funds for defence, railways, national highways and telecom.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had said it expects projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore, which have been stuck for long, to start moving soon.