75-km highway in 108 hours: How India is gunning for Guinness World Record for road construction

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is aiming to win a Guinness World Record for constructing a highway stretch between Amravati and Akola in the least time. The highway authority has given the contract to Rajpath Infracon to construct a stretch of 75 kilometres between the two cities. What is NHAI aiming to achieve? According to a report by Hindustan Times, the company is attempting the record by laying a 75-km stretch between the two cities in 108 hours, or less than five days. The construction of the Amravati-Akola highway began at 6 AM on 3 June and the NHAI is aiming to complete the project by 7 June, Tuesday to set a world record for the fastest construction of the longest bituminous concrete road. A total of 800 employees and 700 workers, including engineers, safety personnel and surveyors are working to achieve the aim in the shortest interval. According to the Times of India, it would have taken at least six months to complete this work in the normal course. The aim is to break the record of building 25.275km road in Doha (Qatar) by Ashghan, the government agency there. In Doha, the road width was 4.5 metre, while the one between Amravati and Akola is 9-metre wide, hence 75km has been calculated. A committee of 22 experts approved by the Guinness Book is monitoring the construction work in three shifts, according to TOI. Earlier, Rajpath Infracon made a world record by constructing a road between Sangli and Satara in 24 hours. Last year, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that India made three world records in March for fastest road construction. “We made it to the Guinness World Records by building a 2.5 km 4-lane concrete road within 24 hours. We also built a 1-lane 25-km bitumen Solapur-Bijapur road within 24 hours," the minister said, reported ANI. The hidden efforts behind the record attempt According to the TOI report, the company is supplying food through 1,000 tiffins to the workers on site. The daily requirement is 11,000 rotis, 220 litres dal and 280 kg vegetables. Over 34,000 tonne bitumen will be needed for the road work and four mixing plants are continuously working to achieve the aim. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.