Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved expansion of a highway project and two multi-tracking railway projects worth Rs 8,313 crore in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand. It also approved the proposal for declaration of Madurai airport in Tamil Nadu as an international airport.Information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Cabinet gave go ahead for the development of a four-lane highway corridor from Badnawar to the Timarwani section of NH-752D (80.4 km) at an investment of Rs 3,839 crore in Madhya Pradesh.The corridor will provide connectivity to Ujjain from the Timrawani interchange of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (DME) and is expected to reduce travel time by approximately one hour. This corridor is the shortest route for traffic from Gujarat and Maharashtra to Ujjain and the upgradation would take care of surge in traffic during the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in April 2028.The two railway projects that Cabinet approved were laying of a fourth line on Sainthia-Pakur and Santragachi-Kharagpur sections. These two stretches covering five districts across West Bengal and Jharkhand will increase the existing network by about 192 km.An official statement said the approved railway projects are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as coal, stone, dolomite, cement, slag, gypsum, iron and steel, foodgrains, petroleum products, and containers, among others. The govt said the capacity augmentation will result in 31 million tonnes per annum additional freight traffic.
