The National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) Phase VII, which proposes to build ring roads, bypasses, elevated roads and flyovers in major cities, is set to go to the Cabinet Committee for economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday. The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways has proposed to the Cabinet that the scope of NHDP-VII be expanded in a big way to include as many big cities as possible. “We have proposed that maximum number of cities be incorporated under NHDP-VII as the traffic pressure has increased heavily across the country. The move will help keep trucks off cities and bringing down traffic congestion and accidents in cities,” said a senior official. “NHDP VII will largely be implemented on public-private partnership (PPP) basis and we are looking at bringing all cities with a near million population under the plan. So, while the number of cities to be included will finally be approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, we have tried to squeeze in as many of them as we can. The plan is not on kilometer basis unlike the other NHDP phases”, added the official. With NHDP-VII planned to be financed via the PPP route, viability gap funding may also be required and would be met out of the cess. An indicative cost of Rs 16,800 crore is estimated for implementation of NHDP-VII.