M A I N   N E W S

Ambala-Zirakpur 4-laning contract next month
Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 14
Road infrastructure in the country is expected to expand significantly in the next seven years with the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways encouraging private participation in its plans of Rs 1,72,000-crore investment in the development of highways.

While implementing the first two phases of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) which were started by the previous NDA government, the UPA government has formulated the next five phases of the NHDP which envisage four/six-laning of corridors with high density traffic, two-laning of remaining national highways, building expressways to connect major industrial towns and constructing ring roads in big cities for proper regulation of traffic.

Against the cost of Rs 64,639 crore for the first two phases of the NHDP, the next five phases are estimated to cost about Rs 1,72,000-crore.

Several districts in Punjab and Haryana will benefit from the BOT projects being taken up in NHDP phase III that involves four-laning of 10,000 km of national highways which have high-density traffic but was not covered by the previous two phases of the project.

Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu today said his ministry will next month award contracts for four-laning of the 35 km Ambala-Zirakpur stretch and 49-km Jalandhar-Amritsar stretch. He said the contract will also be given next month for the construction of a 10-km elevated highway through Panipat which will form part of the North-South corridor.

The minister said contract for 73-km Chandigarh-Kiratpur stretch of NH 21 will be awarded in July. He said all projects will be completed in a time-bound manner.

Mr Baalu said the development of road infrastructure had been accorded top priority by the UPA government. He said a Committee on Infrastructure, chaired by the Prime Minister, had been constituted in August 2004 to initiate policies that will ensure time-bound creation of world-class infrastructure, develop structures that maximise public-private partnership and monitor progress of key infrastructure projects.

The minister said of the total national highways’ length of 65,569-km, nine per cent was four-laned, 56 per cent two-laned and the rest single-laned. He said while 24,000-km of national highways was covered under NHDP phases I, II, III, the fourth phase will involve two-laning the remaining 20,000 km. The project, he said, will be submitted to the government for approval.

He said under Phase V of the NHDP, it had been decided to upgrade 5,000 km of the existing four-lane roads to six-lane roads because of their increasing volumes of traffic.

Mr Baalu said his ministry proposed to take up about 1,000 km for construction of expressways connecting major commercial and industrial townships on BOT basis under phase VI of NHDP project. Under phase VII, the ministry is identifying stretches in major cities that need additional flyovers and bypasses. It is also studying the need of Ring Road in major cities.

Mr Baalu said based on the experience of NHDP phases I and II, the government felt the need to increase private sector involvement in road infrastructure. “The government has decided that all projects included in NHDP phases III to VII will now be taken up on a BOT (Toll) or BOT (Annuity) basis. For NHDP phase II also, it has been decided to increase the length to be awarded under BOT basis,” he said.

The minister said the UPA government had completed 2151 km of the four/six-laning of national highways under NHDP phases I and II in the past nine months. He said 80 per cent of the work on NHDP phase I, which constitutes the 5846-km Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), had been completed last month. While 98 per cent (1390 km) of the Delhi-Mumbai corridor had been completed, the progress was slow on the Kolkata-Delhi corridor which had been completed to the extent of 61 per cent.

The minister said under NHDP II, which envisages the construction of North-South and East-West corridors, work had been completed on 707 km. He said NHDP I and II will be completed by December 2007. The minister said to tackle delays in the acquisition of land, shifting of utilities, getting permission for rail overbridges (ROBs) and getting environmental clearances, the government had constituted an empowered Committee of Secretaries to take fast-track decisions.

He said the committee, which met on April 1 for the first time, had decided to hand over Defence and Airport Authority of India’s land for the construction of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The minister said a special package of Rs 12,000 crore had been worked out for the north-eastern states which involves developing 7,600 km of roads, including 3251 km of national highways in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. He said the plan for package had been forwarded to the government for approval.