Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, announced on 3 April, that the government has adopted a new method to measure its highways. Instead of the earlier used traditional linear method, the government has now shifted to the lane-kilometre concept, reported Hindustan Times (HT).
Under this new concept, the length of each road that is built is measured instead of counting the overall length of the highway. For instance if a 4-lane highway of one km is constructed it will be considered a four km road. At present irrespective of the number of the lanes, it is considered one lane, reported HT.
Government officials and experts believe that this will help in capturing the actual length of the highways constructed in the country.
This is a more realistic assessment of the total length that has been constructed. It is an internationally adopted norm… countries like United States follows this standard.Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways
Nitin Gadhkari specified that when the road construction target for 2017-2018 will be set, it will be done on the basis of lane kilometre method.
The road constructed during 2017-2018 comes to 34,378 km against 9,829 km if counted by the old linear method.
Speaking to HT on the matter, Deepk Dasgupta, Chairman, IL& FS Transportation Network Limited (ITNL) mentioned that their company has been using the lane kilometre format but once the government takes it up, it becomes a standard.
“Instead of using lane km, a much better measure to show the sector’s growth will be the expenditure on construction. This will show the increase in spending,” said Dasgupta who has also been the NHAI chairperson.
Building a two lane highway with paved shoulder costs anywhere between Rs 6 crore to Rs 8 crore per km. The per km cost shoots up anywhere between Rs 14 crore to Rs 20 crore for a four lane highway. Our view was that this difference in cost and the effort should be reflected.Union road secretary YS Malik to HT
Experts of this field believe it will help in giving a better picture of road construction in the country on an yearly basis.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)