Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSME Shri Nitin Gadkari today reviewed the proposed Chambal Express Project with Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Shri Jyotiraditya Scindya, Member of Parliament, through Video Conference.

Speaking during the meeting Shri Gadkari emphasised on expeditious environment clearance, land acquisition and royalty/local tax exemptions to make project see the light of the day soon. He underlined that apart from providing smooth traffic & goods movement the project will immensely benefit the area and people of the backward region along the Expressway. Shri Gadkari also stated that land acquisition should cater to the development of way side amenities besides industrial and commercial clusters with potential for having smart cities, mandis, humar haats etc on both sides.

Thus the project offers huge employment potential in this districts & adjoining areas, he added.

Rs 8200 crore Project passing through MP, UP and Rajasthan envisages connecting Bhind to Kota. It also will provide cross connectivity with Golden Quadrilateral's Delhi-Kolkata corridor, North-South Corridor, East-West Corridor and Delhi-Mumbai -Expressway.

Stressing the need to bring down cost of the project he said royalty and tax exemption on the project material will save more Rs 1000 crore.

Union Minister suggested that Chief Ministers of these States through which road will pass should chair a State level High Powered Committee meeting to sort all State specific issues which will facilitate the faster implementation at optimum cost. It may be stated that Madhya Pradesh has already exempted royalty on minerals for this project.

Shri Gadkari informed that he has directed Chairman NHAI to prepare DPR at the earliest.  It is expected that project may be completed in about 2 years after land acquisition.

He opined that A CHAMBAL Development Authority can be formed for better coordination & progress of this region and called upon the States to sort out forest, environment & Land acquisition issues in top priority.

Further Shri Gadkari invited the States to send Bus Ports & Driver Training school proposals along this & other region.

The Minister felt that Project can also have logistics parks on the lines we are making Logistics park(MMLP) in Indore,Jabalpur & Jaipur.

It may be added the 404 km (approx) project provides alternate route from Kanpur to Kota through MP & then it will join Delhi Mumbai Corridor –The Lifeline of the country.

Senior officers of the State of Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry and NHAI participated in the online review meeting. MP Chief Minister also concurred with Shri Gadkari about expediting project implementation and cost savings.

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RCJ/MS/IA