Govt drawing up major infra development plan, to be executed by 2029

NEW DELHI: The govt is finalising a major infrastructure development plan that it aims to execute by 2029, including construction of around 16,500 km of High Speed NH corridors, operationalisation of Metro rail in 10 more cities and rail connectivity to all ports and industrial hubs, and all capitals of Northeastern states.Sources said Niti Aayog recently reviewed the status of the plans prepared by housing and urban affairs, road transport, railways, shipping and civil aviation ministries for the purpose. They added that there is a proposal to set up an empowered agency involving planning heads of all transport ministries to prepare the integrated transport and logistics strategy, and to have a five-year rolling action plan. The group will also monitor progress of work for its timely completion.TOI has learnt that the highways ministry has prepared the framework for approving projects to build 16,500 km of new High Speed corridors in the next four years and has started sanctioning projects. Similarly, the entire NH network will be upgraded to have at least two lanes, and 13 ropeway projects will be made operational.The railway ministry has drawn up the plan to provide rail connectivity to all Northeastern states and hilly regions in the next four years.

The ministry is also targetting making the first Bullet train, between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, operational by 2029.In the port and shipping sector, the govt has set a target to increase the cargo handling capacity of major ports by an additional 450 million tonnes per annum. Officials said the proposal for mega shipbuilding hubs is at an advanced stage and work will start once it gets the go-ahead from Cabinet.Officials said the departments have been instructed to expedite the preparation and the processing of the projects, so that these can be approved by the cabinet.