India holds world record for fastest road construction, says Gadkari

Gadkari said that the pace of highway construction in the country has touched a  record 37 km per day in the financial year 2020-21.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Friday that India holds the world record for fastest road construction. “We made three world records in March. India now holds world record for fastest road construction. We made it to Guinness World Records by building a 2.5 km 4-lane concrete road within 24 hours. We also built 1-lane 25-km bitumen Solapur-Bijapur road within 24 hours,” the minister said.

In February, Patel Infrastructure Limited, a contractor of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) created a world record by laying the highest quantity of concrete on a four-lane highway in 24 hours. The record was set for laying of Pavement Quality Concrete (PQC) for a four-lane highway of 2,580 meters length within 24 hours. Starting at 8 am on 1 February 2021, they finished the job, totaling 2,580 meters X 4 lanes i.e. approximately 10.32 lane kilometres by 8 am next morning. With a width of 18.75 meters, as much an area as 48,711 square meters of concrete was laid for the expressway in 24 hours. The highest quantity of concrete laid in 24 hours – 14,613 cubic meter was achieved. It was part of the greenfield Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai 8-lane Expressway project.

Another NHAI contractor completed a single lane of the four-lane stretch of 25.54 km being developed between Solapur-Vijapur (NH 52) in 18 hours. Hyderabad-based construction company IJM India carried out the construction work, according to media reports. “About 500 contractual workers worked hard for the project,” Gadkari said earlier.

The ministry of road transport and highways has constructed 13,394 km of highways in the fiscal year 2020-21. Gadkari said that the pace of highway construction in the country has touched a record 37 km per day in the financial year 2020-21.

“Tremendous progress has been achieved in building national highways across the country… These achievements are unprecedented and have no parallel in any other country in the world,” the minister mentioned. The achievement was remarkable as it was achieved despite constraints posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he further added.

“Cumulative cost of ongoing project works has increased by 54 percent at the end of the financial year 2020-21, compared to the financial year 2019-20 (as on March 31),” the minister said.

https://www.livemint.com/news