Accelerating sector faces many bumps

A set of key projects that came to fruition this year involved approval for construction of several ring roads and bypasses around major cities in the country. National Highways Authority of India NHAI, the premier road development agency in the country, also stepped up activity on the National Highways Development Project NHDP, being implemented in four phases 8212; I, II, IIIA and V 8212; to ramp up the quality of over 25,000 km of highways to match international standards.

However, mired by the usual suspects 8212; land acquisition and environmental clearance issues 8212; most of these projects fell way short of their targets. The ambitious Golden Quadrilateral GQ managed to move ahead at what can only be termed a snail8217;s pace, with merely 128 km getting 4-laned upto November 2007.

With the addition negligible, work on the 5,846 km of roads of which 5,629 is complete is now likely to be finished only sometime next year, with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways saying it may even consider closing delayed projects.

8220;The major agenda for 2008 is to complete the Golden Quadrilateral projects on a war footing and to achieve substantive progress on the North South East West NSEW corridors. Our aim is that 60-70 per cent of the NSEW work should be completed by next year,8221; said a senior NHAI official.

The NSEW corridors, which envisage 4-laning of 7,300 km of roads, has so far seen only 1,559 km being completed, while over 4,700 km are under implementation. During calendar year 2007, the pace of progress on NSEW has been less than satisfactory, with just over 700 km seeing completion.

Moreover, three port connectivity projects, crucial to ensuring timely transportation of goods to and from industries, were also cancelled in 2007, on account of 8220;unsatisfactory progress8221; by the contractors. With this, only 28 km of port connectivity roads were added to the country8217;s road network this year.

While unmet targets largely defined the year, a few projects managed to deliver more than promised. Road authorities managed to strengthen over 900 km of pavements, more than double the target. They also widened over 800 km to 2-laned roads, compared to the targeted 783 km.

National Highways Authority of India also showed greater sensitivity road-user involvement, by launching a pilot Road User Satisfaction Survey in 2007. To enhance safety, the Department of Road Transport notified the rules for accreditation of bus body builders, even as the Sunder Committee recommended the creation of a dedicated body on road safety and traffic management.

8220;It is a sad fact that over 1 lakh lives were lost to road accidents in the past year,8221; said K L Thapar, director, Asian Institute of Transport Development and a former Planning Commission member.

8220;The priority for next year should be improvement of safety technology and infrastructure as well as responsible driving to ensure that benefits of improving road network are not lost.8221;

T R Baalu8217;s 2008 roadmap

8226;Complete Golden Quadrilateral project

8226; Complete 60-70 of NSEW

8226; Finalise toll policy