More roads run through stimulus

It may be election time,but the government is seriously at work putting together a plan for the fourth stimulus package....

It may be election time,but the government is seriously at work putting together a plan for the fourth stimulus package. On the table is a proposal to develop 40,000-km roads by spending a massive Rs 60,000 crore directly from the Budget over the next three to four years.

Senior Planning Commission officials told The Indian Express that the plan was to upgrade existing national highways that are not a part of the National Highways Development Programme NHDP. The network of 40,000 km will be spread across almost all states and will serve as a grid supporting the Golden Quadrilateral,North-South and East-West corridors.

The idea is to upgrade existing highways to international standards without making massive investments towards four-laning or six-laning them. We want to bring them on a par with international road safety standards as well as the quality standards suitable for new-age automobiles, an official in the Planning Commission said.

Since these do not fall under any major development programme,the money that is available is not enough for their maintenance and upkeep. The plan will,however,have to wait till the new government comes to office. We are using the time to work out the nitty-gritty. It may actually serve as a major boost to the economy in these times when there is a slump in the market. Partnership with the state government is being considered to implement the upgradation plan, the official said. However,the implementation agency at the Centre is yet to be finalised.

It is reckoned that state governments may not be able to cope with such large expenditure in the first year but second year onwards it will pick up,according to our estimates, said the official. A small percentage of this could also be city roads.

Even though there is a plan to construct roads over 5,000 km under NHDP IV and another 16,000 km each in NHDP VI and VII,this 40,000 km is out of the ambit of the NHDP. Approvals will have to be sought on a different platform for this, sources in the Planning Commission said. Of the 65,000 km of already built national highways in the country,40,000 km will be covered by this up-gradation plan.

India has a length of over 1,31,000 km of state highways,major district roads of about 4,67,000 km and rural roads with a network length of 26,50,000 km.