Expressways planned on 3,530 km in first phase

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has identified 11 stretches in 12 states in the country for setting up...

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has identified 11 stretches in 12 states in the country for setting up high-speed six- to eight-lane expressways in the country in the first phase of its plan. The stretches so far identified add up to a total length of 3,530 km and would be built at a cost exceeding Rs 20,000 crore as per the plan prepared by the ministry. Another 15,000 km of expressways are in the pipeline for which stretches will be identified in due course.

An expressway division is being created in the National Highways Authority of India NHAI. Consultants will be appointed soon to look into the feasibility and routes that the expressways will pass through. The preliminary work takes six-eight months. Once that is done and an expressway authority rolls out,the bidding would not take too long, a senior government official told The Indian Express. The states identified for the first phase include Himachal Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka,Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu,Karnataka,Maharshtra,Gujarat,Andhra Pradesh,Kerala and Goa.

Initial studies have shown that the country needs roughly 18,637 km of expressways by 2022 to meet the growing demand of traffic and provide the arterial network in the country that will run along major economic routes. The ministry has also said in various presentations to stakeholders that the national expressway network would not be an upgraded national highway network and would be developed entirely in the greenfield mode.

Even though the majority of the network will be on build-operate-transfer BOT mode,segments with lean traffic will be constructed on annuity basis towards maintaining the comprehensiveness of the overall network plan,the official added.

In order to fast-track these expressways,the ministry also wants the government to set up a separate cell in the National Expressways Authority of India NEAI to oversee land acquisition. The ministry is also looking at the DMRC Act where even developers could be authorised to undertake land acquisition.

In addition,the plan is to rope in real-estate players to create wayside amenities such as petrol pumps,hotels,motels,malls and multi-purpose shops along the routes providing employment to local people.

20-km-a-day scheme gets green signal

NEW DELHI: The empowered group of ministers on roads gave a green signal for Kamal Naths ambitious highway development programme for the year 2010-2011 in its first meeting on Monday. Laying the foundations for Kamal Naths 20-km-a-day agenda,the group allowed the ministry to kickstart the land acquisition process for next years programme and go ahead with the preparation of detailed project reports for the same from this year itself. Land acquisition is a key bottleneck in the process and the decision of the EGOM endorses the ministers plan to have at least 80 per cent of the land acquired before awarding the project to a player in the public-private partnership mode, a senior government official associated with the meeting told The Indian Express.