Praveen Kumar Singh

New Delhi: Three weeks after the environment ministry communicated India's voluntary commitment to reduce carbon emission by 20-25% of gross domestic product by year 2020 to UNFCCC, the road transport and highways ministry has adopted an active stance on this front. It has initiated the groundwork to put in place a stringent set of norms to control vehicular pollution.

New Delhi: By the end of this month, all National Highways (NH) across India will be renumbered, which the government claims will more scientific than now. So, the popular NH-8 connecting Delhi and Mumbai will be renumbered as NH-48 and similarly, the Kolkata-Delhi highway, which is presently NH-2, will become NH-19. Moreover, these primary corridors will also be longer.

Road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has finally proposed an alternative route that circumvents the Pench Tiger Reserve to complete the North-South corridor. Earlier, his ministry had suggested widening an existing 18-metre road passing through the reserve, but this was opposed by the environment ministry because it endangered the tigers

Roads and transport minister Kamal Nath issued an ultimatum to state public works departments (PWD) today, declaring that states must facilitate land acquisition for road construction and utilise previously appropriated funds, otherwise delayed projects would be foreclosed while new ones would become increasingly difficult to procure.

The Government is all set to give a new fillip to the road transport and highways sector in the Union Budget 2010-11.

Road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has asked his ministry to draft bidding documents for mega projects in such a manner that they did not exclude top domestic players from the bidding process. The direction follows objections raised by some major domestic infrastructure players over the ministry's plan to tighten bidding norms for mega projects.

New Delhi: Cement industry is now pitching for concrete highways in the light of road, transport and highways ministry

The road transport and highways ministry is drafting stringent bidding norms for mega-highway projects that could possibly leave even large Indian players out of the fray.

In a prelude to creating a national expressways authority on the lines of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has already set a time table of works that the agency would implement.

Sharmistha Mukherjee / New Delhi January 5, 2010, 0:12 IST

The Ministry of Shipping is nearly doubling the initial cost estimates of the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, which aims to dredge a navigable channel through the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka.