New Delhi: With major emphasis on transportation and the required infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday made several announcements with an allocation of Rs 1.7 lakh crore for transport infrastructure.
Presenting the Union Budget for the financial year 2020-21, Sitharaman said that the government plans to monetise 12 bundles of national highways of 6,000 km by the financial year 2023-24.
Announcing that work on the Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway would start soon, the Finance Minister said the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be completed by 2023.
She said "accelerated development" of highways will be undertaken which would include development of 2,500 km of access-controlled highways, 9,000 km of economic corridor, 2,000 km of coastal roads and 2,000 km of strategic highways.
The Finance Minister also announced that 100 new airports would be set up across the country to support the UDAN scheme by 2024. She also said more Tejas-like trains would be introduced.
Sitharaman said large solar power capacity would be be set up alongside rail tracks, on the land owned by the railways.
The government has of late laid emphasis on infrastructure. Recently, the Finance Minister had announced setting up of a National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) for investments of around Rs 102 lakh crore.
(IANS)