The government today said the World Bank may soon grant $3 billion (about Rs

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14,000 crore) assistance for road projects in the country.

"The World Bank President Robert B Zoellick is arriving here on December 2 and we are hopeful of getting clearance for USD 3 billion loan as sought by us for highway projects," Nath told PTI.

He said the Transport Ministry was in the process of assessing the fund requirements for various highway projects and may seek more assistance from the World Bank during the meet.

The government has sought loan for converting 6,372-km of 1-lane highways to 2-lane out of the total 19,702 km single lane highways in the country under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV.

On formation of Expressway Authority of India, the proposed nodal agency for building expressways for fast, unhindered flow of traffic, he said consultants appointed by his Ministry had given their final report and consultations were on with the state governments for finalising it.

"We are in the process of talks with various state governments and other stakeholders for Expressway Authority of India and a final decision would be taken soon," he said.

The government plans to build 18,637 km of expressways in three phases by 2022 and the Transport Ministry in December 2008 had hired a consultancy services for formulating a master plan for the national expressway network in a phased manner by the end of 2022.