The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways has decided to initiate phase IV of National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) - one of the most crucial phases - with two-laning of 155 highway stretches all over India.

The Ministry has prepared a Cabinet note for approval of Rs 27,800 crore phase which would include two-laning of 20,000 kilometres of national highways passing through several States.

This phase will include two-laning of single-lane highways thereby increasing their carrying capacity. The unique feature of this phase would be provision of paved shoulders in these highways. These shoulders would be 5-metre wide paved stretches on either side of the highways. The paved shoulders would be used by slow-moving traffic and trucks for overtaking. Sources said that 155 stretches have been identified all over the country starting from Agra to Tamil Nadu.

This time, the Ministry has decided not to entrust NHDP-IV to NHAI. A senior Ministry official said: "It will be implemented by the Ministry itself. The Ministry's chief engineers would supervise the project." Sources said that the decision has been taken seeing the tight deadline schedule. NHAI is already implementing remaining parts of Golden Quadrilateral and other phases of NHDP that involve four and six-laning of highways.

The Ministry will divide the 20,000-km NHDP-IV in different packages and give specific charge to chief engineers. Project directors will be appointed for dedicated packages. The official said: "This project would require going into interiors of the States. We will implement it ourselves and have project monitoring exercise at the Ministry level. This would cut down delays also."

Apart from NHDP-IV, the Ministry is now studying million-plus towns all over the country. These towns, near State Capitals like Bangalore and Hyderabad, would get ring roads and bypasses to decongest the burgeoning cities.