AGARTALA, Nov 18 (TIWN) The government on Thursday said that national highway development projects worth Rs 6,067.9 crore have been cleared by the standing finance committee.

According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a total of 12 projects with a highway length of 476.38 km were approved by the standing finance committee on Tuesday.

"These projects are in the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh," the ministry said in a statement.

While four projects have been scantioned for Maharashtra, two have been approved for Manipur, and one project each has been given clearance to developed at Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The majority of projects approved have been sanctioned under the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode of development.

The EPC mode entails that the contractor build the project by designing, installing and procuring necessary labour and land to construct the infrastructure, either directly or by subcontracting.

However, unlike PPP (public-private partnership), the financing is done by the government and not by banks or private equity funds through issuing of sovereign bonds or taking financial guarantees for the project.