Two-day session focuses on faster land acquisition, project implementation, highway safety and quality; four-laning plans for key Chhattisgarh corridors discussed
TFP Bureau, Raipur, October 5, 2026: Deputy Chief Minister and Public Works Minister Arun Sao participated in a two-day national brainstorming session on roads and national highways that began in Narmada, Gujarat, on Sunday.
Organised by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under the theme ‘Progress through Gati Shakti’, the session brought together ministers, senior officials, experts and policymakers from road construction departments of states and Union Territories.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the session in the presence of Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Harsh Malhotra.
Discussions on the first day focused on integrated infrastructure planning under PM GatiShakti, expediting land acquisition and effective utilisation of land funds, and the Model Concession Agreement framework for robust project implementation and rating.
The participants also discussed the design, quality, road safety and project management aspects of future national highway projects.
The deliberations are of particular relevance to Chhattisgarh, where action plans are being implemented for four-laning of four key national highway corridors — Raipur-Jagdalpur, Bilaspur-Raigarh, Katghora-Ambikapur and Raipur-Sarangarh. The frameworks and approaches discussed at the national session are expected to provide inputs for implementation of these projects.
Representing Chhattisgarh along with Sao were Public Works Department Engineer-in-Chief V.K. Bhatpahari, Additional Secretary S.N. Srivastava and Chief Engineer (National Highways Zone) Gyaneshwar Kashyap.
The second day of the session, on October 6, will focus on designing safer highways, including the transition from standards to implementation, as well as quality assurance and project monitoring.
