Expressways inch towards progress

There still seems to be hope for Mohali as 8216;Future City8217;-an epithet given by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal-to hop onto the fastrack.

There still seems to be hope for Mohali as 8216;Future City8217; 8212; an epithet given by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal 8212;to hop onto the fastrack. Even as 13 infrastructure development projects still languish in the pipeline as reported in Newsline on Thursday, construction of two Expressways to Mohali is inching ahead successfully.

While the Mohali-Phagwara Expressway will connect the upcoming Mohali International Airport with Amritsar and Jalandhar via Phagwara, the other Expressway will provide direct access to industrial town Lalru in Punjab and industrial hub Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. Both the Expressways are proposed to come up at an estimated cost of Rs 3,400 crore on a design, build, finance and operate DBFO basis.

M/s Louis Berger Inc has been named the technical consultant and will submit the preliminary project proposal for both the Expressways within 4 months. Land acquisition notices for both the mega-projects are likely to be issued by the Public Works Department Building and Roads later this month, said an official of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board PIDB, the executing agency for the project.

According to preliminary estimates, the Expressway around Mohali will involve acquisition of almost 1,500 acres of land while figures for the Mohali-Phagwara Expressway are still to be worked out.

While construction of the 104.2-km long Mohali-Phagwara Expressway, which will start near Kharar, is estimated to cost Rs 2,000 crore, the Expressway around Mohali will cost Rs 1,400 crore. Construction of the 67.7-km long Expressway will start from National Highway-22 near Lalru and crisscross through NH-64 in Banur, NH-95 and NH-21 in Kharar to join NH-21-A near Baddi. This road is expected to ease vehicular movement around Mohali and considerably shorten the distance from Lalru and Mohali to Baddi, Himachal Pradesh8217;s most preferred investment destination.

Details of other infrastructure development projects, including the Rs 100-crore Green Field Super-Specialty Hospital and a Rs-200 crore five-star hotel-cum-international convention centre, are still being worked out.

For the upgrade and beautification of the urban road network in Mohali, a project with an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore, Dickson Rothschild India Private Limited, New Delhi, was appointed design consultant on September 15. The agreement is yet to be signed.

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Also in the pipeline is a Fast Food Counter in Kurali worth Rs 3 crore, widening and strengthening of the existing road from Mullanpur to T-junction at Rs 15 crore, computerised inter-state check-points in Mohali, Balongi, Zirakpur and Lalru, a fruit and vegetable market in Mohali to come at a cost of Rs 50 crore and a Rs 150-crore Sports Complex.