Bhubaneswar: The Centre has accorded in-principle approval for National Highway (NH) projects worth Rs 13,000 crore for the State for the current financial year 2025-26, Works Minister Prithviraj Harichandan informed here today.
Shri Harichandan told this to reporters after reviewing the progress of major NH projects including the Cuttack-Sambalpur (NH-55) in the state.
The Minister said the State has started receiving benefits of the double-engine government as the union government has given us in-principle approval for construction of NH projects with an estimated cost of Rs 13,000 crore during the current fiscal while the state was getting NH projects worth Rs 1200 to Rs 1300 crore each year earlier.
“We have to expedite the pace of construction work. So, we have set a target to make an expenditure of Rs 2,000 crore by September,” he said.
“If we will show our work and complete the NH works on time, we can get Rs 13,000 crore from the union government and create a new record on construction of NHs in the state,” the Minister said.
Shri Harichandan hoped that the state could build more NHs networks than what the state had achieved in the last five years.
Commenting on the much-delayed national highway project connecting Sambalpur-Cuttack, he said the project was delayed due to financial issues of the executing agency. Now, the issue has been resolved and the work is almost completed, with only one or two patches left.
“Once those are finished, we will address road damage caused by the Vehicular Underpass (VUP) construction. Despite this, the overall progress is positive, and I am confident that the remaining work, including the VUP, will be completed by the end of this year,” he informed.
The NH project, which began in 2017, was initially targeted for completion by 2020. However, due to various challenges, including forest land acquisition issues and the setbacks caused by the Covid pandemic, the project got delayed, sources said.