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This is an archive article published on February 15, 2008

Maya shows the way? Centre OKs 4 expressways from metros

Uttar Pradesh may have taken the lead in kicking off expressway...

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Uttar Pradesh may have taken the lead in kicking off expressway dreams with its 1,000-km Ganga Expressway project but the Centre is quickly learning. The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways has finally approved the construction of four inter-city access-controlled expressways across 1,000 km and is looking out for a countrywide grid of expressways.

At present, India has only two expressways, 92-km stretch between Mumbai and Pune and 93 km between Vadodara and Ahmedabad.

While the decision to connect Vadodara and Mumbai with a 450-km-long expressway was already taken, the Ministry has now decided it will build expressways from Delhi to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh; between state capitals Bangalore and Chennai; and between Dhanbad in Bihar to Kolkata. The six-lane expressways, designed for a speed of 120 kmph, are expected to be out for bidding by May this year.

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“These four corridors were decided upon after taking into consideration traffic volumes and road infrastructure condition along these sections. The 1000 km of expressways spread across four routes are likely to cost Rs 16,800 crore and will be covered under phase VI of National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). They will be implemented on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis through the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)”, said Brahm Dutt, Secretary Road Transport, Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways.

“We want to connect economically significant areas in such a way that there is least amount of displacement, that access-controlled Greenfield sections do not pass through very fertile land even as they take the shortest route,” the Secretary said.

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