New Delhi: With the landmark Rs 58,000 crore National Highway Development Project (NHDP) having started paying dividends, Government has launched another ambitious Rs 40,000 crore project to connect all major cities, uncovered by NHDP, by four-lane highways.

Code-named Pradhan Mantri Bharat Jodo Pariyojana or "PM-BJP", the project involves four-laning of 10,000-kms of road stretches, identified on the basis of traffic density, connectivity of State capitals with NHDP and important centres of tourism and economic activity by the year 2008, Minister for Road Transport and Highways B C Khanduri said.

"We have already tendered for construction of 622 km of roads and expect four-laning of these in 30 months," he said, adding that the projects will be implemented on BOT principle were the contractor will build, operate and maintain the road and recover his cost by way of toll.

On NHDP, Khanduri said four/six laning of 2,395-km of the first phase called Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), connecting four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, has been completed while work on 3,368-km stretch was in full swing. Contract for 83-km Allahabad by-pass was yet to be awarded.

"I expect 95 per cent of the 5,846-km GQ to be completed by the target date of December 2004," he said.

Of the 7,300-km corridors, North-South corridor joining Srinagar with Kanyakumari and East-West corridor linking Silchar with Porbandar, 565 km has already been four-laned, while work on 433 km was in full swing. He said that this section of NHDP is expected to be completed by 2007.