NHAI to speed up land acquisitions: CM

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said today that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) would expedite the land acquisition for major road projects in the state.
Presiding over the meeting of Senior official of NHAI here today CM directed officers to set deadlines for completion of projects being executed by them ensuring it’s completion accordingly.
State Government is planning  lay foundation stones of a few NHAI projects in the State any time during the mid of this year. 
He urged the NHAI authorities to ensure proper maintenance of national highways and four-lane projects being executed in the State so that commuters do not face any inconvenience. 
Currently State has about 40,000 kms road length, but being a hilly State a lot more needs to be done, he said that his government connected 321 villages with roads however  261 villages  were also connected during the previous Congress rule.
In last four years  240 bridges and 3108 kms roads were built in the state he said that hilly State is giving more priority for construction of new roads which is mode of transportation.
 NHAI authorities to ensure completion of 85 Kilometers Hanogi-Kullu-Manali road by end of July this year, being constructed at a cost of Rs. 4540 crore .
 NHAI is also executing 104 kms Parwanoo-Solan-Kaithlighat-Shimla bypass road, 226 kms Kiratpur-Nerchowk-Mandi-Kullu-Manali road, 223 kms Shimla-Bilaspur-Hamirpur-Mataur road and 17 kms Pinjore-Baddi-Nalagarh road. 
All these projects on completion would save 131 kms and save 11 hour travelling distance, he added