The government has started work on five expressways including Delhi-Meerut while other seven projects will be launched soon, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday .
"We are constructing 12 new express highways. Work on five has already started. These include Eastern Peripheral expressway which will be completed by August 15 this year and Delhi-Meerut expressway," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari said addressing the media in New Delhi.
After inaugurating an exhibition at India Integrated Transport & Logistics Summit 2017, the minister said work will begin on Vadodara-Mumbai project this year.
"Alignments for Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Ludhiana- Amritsar-Katra expressways have been finalised," he said.
The other projects he said include 250 km Bangalore- Chennai expressway besides Hyderabad-Vijaywada and Nagpur-Hyderabad projects.
The Minister said the road building pace has reached 23 km a day at present and would touch 40 km a day in March 2018.
He said a massive road network will be built under Bharatmala that would include highways in border areas and hilly terrains besides road connectivity to district headquarters and tribal areas.