The government has approved eight highway projects worth Rs 6,000 crore for six states – Punjab, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha. With the approval, the number of projects cleared by Road Transport and Highways Ministry in February has swelled to 37, entailing a total investment of about Rs 34,000 crore. ”The Ministry has approved eight projects with a total length of about 350 kms and aggregate total project cost of Rs 6,000 crore,” said Sanjay Mitra, Secretary, Road Transport and Highways. Of these, six will be implemented in EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode and two in hybrid annuity mode, the secretary added. The projects approved include the construction of a partially access controlled four-lane elevated highway between Samrala Chowk to Ludhiana Municipal limit on NH 95 in Punjab on hybrid annuity mode to be executed at a cost of Rs 910 crore. Another project for Punjab pertains to four-lane Laddowal Bypass (linking NH 95 WITH NH 1 via Laddowal seed farm at Ludhiana) under NHDP on hybrid annuity mode at a cost of Rs 444 crore. Two projects approved for Jharkhand today include four/two laning with paved shoulder of Govindpur Chas-West Bengal border section of NH 32 on EPC mode at Rs 946 crore and four-laning of Barhi-Hazaribag section of NH 33 on EPC mode at a cost of Rs 700 crore. A Rs 302 crore project was approved for Madhya Pradesh for balance work of 2 lane with paved shoulder of Bhopal to Sanchi section of NH 86.