With an objective to accelerate infrastructure development in the State for achieving sustained socio-economic growth and improve quality of life, the State Government is contemplating to draft an Odisha Road Sector Policy.
A high-level meeting was held to this effect under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra on Wednesday to discuss about different dimensions to be covered under the proposed policy.The discussions revealed that different policy frameworks of Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala would be looked into while preparing a draft of Odisha Road Sector Policy.Initiating the discussions, Principal Secretary of Works Nalini Kanta Pradhan said the policy would address issues like increasing the share of all-weather two-lane roads, augmentation of surfaced roads, boosting investment in the road sector and quantum of investment in the public and private partnership (PPP) mode and bringing in improvement in the road user satisfaction index.
Sources said the State possesses about 2,50,000 km of road network comprising National Highways (NHs), State Highways (SHs), Major District Roads (MDRs), other district roads and village roads. Out of the entire network, about 3,900 km of roads are two-lane or multilane, about 4,000 km are intermediary lane and the remaining are single-lane to accommodate two-way traffic.
Besides, a mere 20 per cent of the entire road network is paved. Out of the total length of the major road network, NHs, SHs, MRDs and other district roads constitute about 18,000 km which is only 8 per cent. But these roads handle about 80 per cent of the traffic within the State.However, the density of surfaced roads is only 140 km per one lakh population, which is much below the national average and the figures in States like Punjab, Karnataka and Gujarat. While the length of SHs per million people is only 89 km in Odisha, the all-India average is 135 km.
Besides, approximately 25 per cent of the major road network (4,260 km) has been operating under capacity-constrained conditions; 40 per cent of urban roads are unpaved; and about 40 per cent of the existing villages or habitations do not possess any all-weather road connection with the existing road network.
This apart, due to constant deterioration of the road safety situation over the years, there have been 3,500 fatalities in past year, which amounts to an average 10 fatalities per day.The situation has further worsened as about 90 per cent of the commercial vehicles are overloaded. Keeping this in view, it is estimated that about 10,000 km of the major roads will become capacity-constrained by the year 2018.
It may be noted that the Government of India has stipulated upgradation of all State Highways and at least 40 per cent of the MDRs to two lanes with paved shoulder standard by 2021.In view of all these issues, the State Government has planned to formulate an Odisha Road Sector Policy 2014 with an aim to provide and maintain a quality road network which is safe, sustainable and adequate for efficient transportation of goods and people, thus meeting the socioeconomic developmental needs of the State.
The Chief Secretary advised the Principal Secretary and officials of the Department of Works to have consultations with different departments and various stakeholders to have proper inputs for drafting of the policy.