Nat’l Highway tag for 26 UP roads soon

LUCKNOW: More than two dozen roads in Uttar Pradesh are expected to offer a smooth ride soon with the Yogi Adityanath government sending a proposal to the Centre to grant them national highway (NH) status.

The NH tag would mean the onus to maintain and repair these roads would vest with the Centre and not with the cashstrapped UP Public Works Department, which largely has to rely on loans and grants over their upkeep.

“The Union minister of Road Transport and Highways has already given consent to notify 73 state roads as national highways. Now, the UP government has given no objection certificate to similarly designate 26 other roads as national highways,” said a senior PWD official.

The Union Ministry of Road and Transport, he said, declared state roads as new NHs from time to time on the basis of wellestablished principles.

“The criteria for state roads to qualify as NH includes their length/breadth, their inter-city and intra-state connectivity which could reduce travel distance and achieve substantial economic growth,” said the official.

After receiving the NOC from

the state government, the NHAI initiated the process of transfer and taking over of assets and liabilities of such these new national highways from the State Public Works Department (PWD).

The total length of National Highways (NHs) in UP would go up by 2,301 kilometer if these 26 roads were also taken up by the Union Road and Transport Ministry, he said.

Apart from several district roads, the 320 kilometer-long Billraya-Panawari, the Lucknow-Ballia and Lucknow-Mohan roads are on the list sent to the Centre to be declared as National Highway.