Denying any discrimination against the southern State, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that an order that virtually stalled all highway development works in Kerala had been revoked.
His remarks came amidst allegations from Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the move was “politically motivated”.
Vijayan had claimed that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), as part of its policy guidelines issued on April 15, had categorised highway projects into “high priority-1” and “high priority-2”, placing the state in the second category.
The CPI(M) leader had also said the NHAI had issued directions to all its regional offices to suspend the land acquisition process of all projects under the “priority-2” category.
