To keep the pace with all round economic development, the Government
has given very high priority to highways’ development.
In the Golden Quadrilateral out of a total length of 5846 km 4-laning
of 5319 km have been completed and work on balance 527 km is in progress.
The length of the North-South and East-West Corridor in Phase-II is 6240 km
out of which works have been awarded in 4684 km during the period from June,
2004 to April, 2006. The balance length to be awarded is 1481 km which
includes 519 km of some stretches in Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal
Development of National Highways
Keeping in view the demand of the
road traffic the Government has initiated National Highway Development programmes
in phases. The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-I
and Phase-II consists of 4-laning of National Highways connecting four metropolis
of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi, namely Golden Quadrilateral,
North-South and East-West Corridor and Port Connectivity and other National
Highway projects. The
Golden Quadrilateral is expected to be ready very soon.
The Port Connectivity projects include improvement of links to the
11 numbers of major ports. NHDP is being implemented by the National Highways
Authority of India (NHAI).
The Phase-II of NHDP mainly comprises
North-South and East-West Corridor connecting Srinagar to Kannihakumari and
Silchar to Porbandar. Most of the works have already been allotted,
except the section in Jammu & Kashmir (318 km) which involves difficult
terrain and climatic conditions for which the preparation of Detailed Project
Report (DPR) is still in progress. The alignment of the part section
of the East-West Corridor passing through wild life sanctuary in West Bengal
was to be changed as the original alignment was not cleared by the Ministry
of Environment. The preparation of the DPR of the re-alignment has now
been taken up. These sections in Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal
are targeted to be awarded by September, 2006.
Out of the total length completed
so far in the works mentioned above, 2952 km have been completed during the
period June, 2004 to April, 2006. The 4-laning of Delhi-Mumbai Corridor
of the Golden Quadrilateral (1419 km) was fully completed in the year 2005.
During the year 2005, NHAI has awarded
contracts for implementation of the works on NHDP for more than 5000 km length
of National Highways, which is the maximum length awarded by any single agency
in any one year on such works in the history of the development of National
Highways. During the period June, 2004 to April, 2006, 149 contracts
have been awarded for an aggregate length of 6376 km of National Highways.
The NHAI has also taken up the maintenance of this improved National Highways
through operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts. During the period
of May, 2004 to April, 2006, 23 such O&M contracts for an aggregate length
of 2147 km have been awarded.
Further Development
The UPA Government has also taken
major initiatives proposed for further development of National Highways through
phases-III to VII of NHDP. The Committee on Infrastructure headed by
the Prime Minister has proposed a massive National Highways Development Programme
for the next seven years (2005-2012) which envisages the following: -
Completion of GQ and EW-NS
corridors.
4-laning of 10,000 km under NHDP
Phase-III.
2-laning with paved shoulders of
20,000 km of National Highways under NHDP Phase-IV.
6-laning of 6500 km selected
stretches of National Highways under NHDP Phase-V.
Development of 1000 km of
expressways under NHDP Phase-VI.
Construction of ring roads, flyovers
and bypasses on selected stretches under NHDP Phase-VII.
Public Private Partnership
Due to huge investment requirement
for the development of roads particularly the National Highways the Government
has adopted the policy of encouragement of participation of the private sectors
in the National Highway development. It has now been decided that all
the sub-projects of NHDP Phase-III to Phase-VII would be taken up mainly on
the basis of public private partnership. During the period from June,
2004 to April, 2006 43 BOT toll / annuity based projects of NHDP Phase-II
and NHDP Phase-IIIA have been awarded by NHAI for an aggregate length of 2455
km.
National Highway Development Project
Phase III
There is a programme
of 4-laning of 10,000 km of National Highways primarily through public private
partnership on BOT basis under NHDP Phase-III. The Government has approved
up gradation of 4000 km under NHDP Phase-III A in March, 2005 at an estimated
cost of Rs. 22,000 crore as also to take advance action in the form of preparation
of the Detailed Project Reports for the balance 6000 km under Phase-III B.
4-laning works on 1090 km as a part of Phase-III A is under progress with
17 numbers of contracts.
The Committee on Infrastructure has
approved in principle, 6-laning of 6500 km of National Highways under NHDP
Phase-V and development of 1000 km of expressways in February, 2006 under
NHDP Phase-VI.
Development of North Eastern Region
The Government has also taken up
schemes for improvement of National Highways and other roads in North Eastern
Region. This aims at improving road connectivity to remote places of
North Eastern Region. It envisages two / four laning of about 3251 km
of National Highways and two laning / improvement of about 2500 km of state
roads and a length of 1888 km roads of strategic importance. This will
also ensure connectivity of 85 district headquarters in the eight North-Eastern
states, to the National Highways.
The Government has approved
Phase A of this programme which consists of improvement of 1110 km of National
Highways and 200 km of State roads / roads of strategic importance at an estimated
cost of Rs. 4618 crore. The Government has also approved preparation
of the Detailed Project Reports for the Phase B of the projects which involves
improvement of 2141 km of National Highways and 2981 km of State roads / roads
of strategic importance. The balance length of improvement of 1027 km
of State roads is Phase C of this programme. NHAI has already started
work in Assam under the East-West Corridor of NHDP and during the last two
years 24 contracts for an aggregate length of 584 km have been awarded.
Overall Development of National Highways
In addition to the National
Highways entrusted to NHAI for improvement under NHDP, other improvement works
on the National Highways are being carried out by the respective State
Governments and the Border Roads Organisation on an agency basis for the Ministry
of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways. The overall physical
achievements in respect of development of National Highways under different
categories of improved works carried out by NHAI, BRO and the State Governments
during the period from May, 2004 to March, 2006 is as:
|
Widening of four lane
|
3068 km
|
|
Strengthening of existing weak
two - lane
|
4485 km
|
|
Improvement of Riding Quality
Programme (IRQP)
|
5693 km
|
|
Widening single lane to two-lane
|
1693 km
|
|
Bridges constructed
|
204 nos.
|
The allocation of fund for the National
Highways and State Roads is: -
Amount are in Rs. Crores
|
Year
|
National Highways
|
State Roads
|
Roads of Economic Importance
|
|
2004-2005
|
1848.00
|
868.00
|
96.00
|
|
2005-2006
|
3269.74
|
1535.36
|
170.54
|
|
2006-2007
|
6407.45
|
1535.46
|
170.61
|
For improvement of State roads
1257 numbers of works under Central Road Fund scheme and 111 numbers of works
under State Roads of Economic Importance and
Inter-State Connectivity (E&I) Scheme have been sanctioned at a cost of Rs.
2702.55 crores and Rs. 425.16 crores respectively during the last two years.
Declaration of new National
Highways
The Government has declared in
March, 2006 Srinagar-Kargil-Leh road (422 km) as National Highway No.1D and
Eastern Peripheral Expressway bypassing Delhi connecting NH-1 to NH-2 (134 km)
as a National Expressway No.2.
Environmental Consideration
Green Highways: Keeping in
view the concern of the environment alongwith the development of National
Highways the NHAI has formulated a tree plantation strategy. Till now more than 7.5 lakh trees and
more than 8 lakh shrubs have been planted mostly through involvement of the
State forest departments.
Resettlement of the project affected
people
NHAI has adopted project specific
resettlement and rehabilitation frameworks. Besides providing additional
assistance to the project affect families certain community development works
have also been undertaken. Some of them are resettlement of about 245
squatters in Kanpur, relocation of shopkeepers / vendors at Sherghatti in
Bihar and at Bagoda in Jharkhand, resettlement of about 450 squatters from
Rajkot bypass. Resettlement of about 40 commercial squatters in Tumkur
district in Karnataka and resettlement of about 140 commercial squatters in
Chitradurga district in Karnataka.
Relief works in respect of Tsunami
hit areas
Several parts of the country were
heavily devastated due to sudden effects of Tsunami, which occurred in
December, 2004. The Ministry took several steps for restoration of such
damages on National Highways and other roads in Andaman & Nicobar Islands
as listed below: -
Sanctioning of repair works
amounting to Rs. 53 crore on National Highways.
Launching of Bailey bridge on
NH-45A near Karaikal in Pondicherry at the site of damaged Arasalar Bridge.
Restoration of all other roads in
Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Sanctioning of Arasalar Bridge in
km. 178/4 of NH-45A in Pondicherry at a cost of Rs. 4.70 crore.
Agreements with Pakistan for bus
services:
Agreements
have been signed on 21.12.2005 with Pakistan for introduction of bus service
between Amritsar – Lahore and Amritsar – Nankana Sahib. Regular bus service
between Amritsar – Lahore has commenced from 24.1.2006 whereas bus services
between Amritsar – Nankana Sahib has started from 24.3.2006.
Setting up of a Commissionerate of
Road Safety and road safety fund:
The Government has decided to set up Commissionerate on Road Safety and Traffic
Management by bringing together related disciplines such as, road engineering,
vehicles engineering, enforcement, statistical research and analysis, and
information, education and communication.
The Government has also decided to set up a dedicated Road Safety Fund
by earmarking one percent of the cess amount available under Central Road Fund
(CRF) for National Highways.
NCJ/DT
(Release ID :18156)