Centre forms panel to bridge road between state govt and NHAI

Under the National Highways Development Project (phase-III),NHAI has to widen the 114-km stretch between Muzaffarnagar and Hardwar,a part of Delhi-Dehradun corridor,to four lanes in order to improve the access to hill stations and pilgrim centres in Uttarakhand. A 93-km stretch of the corridor is in Uttarakhand,while 21 km falls in UP.

Last year,the state government had declined to sign the State Support Agreement (SSA) for the 21-km stretch in UP on grounds that it wants to develop an expressway along the Upper Ganga Canal connecting Greater Noida to Purkazi near UP-Uttarakhand border. If the SSA was signed,the state government had to assure that no alternative expressway would be developed parallel to NHAI’s highway.     

After the state government refused to sign the SSA,NHAI planned to roll back the Rs 900- crore project. But in November last year,NHAI decided to go ahead with the project because land had been acquired for the project by then and bids had already been invited for appointment of developers.

In January,NHAI selected Era Infrastructure Engineering to develop the 21-km stretch along with the 93-km stretch.

According to sources,the developer is yet to start work on the stretch in UP and is waiting for the SSA to be signed by the UP government.

“The committee will study the details of the flour-laning project of NHAI and the Upper Ganga Canal Expressway of the state government. They will hear the complaints of competency from both agencies,” said Regional Officer of NHAI,UP and Uttarakhand A K Srivastava   

“The committee has been asked to resolve the matter in a way that projects of NHAI and the state government are not affected,” Srivastava said.

Dutt,meanwhile,reviewed the status of 29 NHAI projects,which are under implementation in the state. Developers,consultants and NHAI’s project directors apprised Dutt about the hurdles in the way of various projects like Lucknow-Sitapur and Lucknow-Faizabad highway.

They were asked to coordinate with state government officials and accelerate the development of the highways.