Union Road and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday directed the authorities to expedite road infrastructure projects and asked them to fast-track highway projects by resolving problem areas like land acquisition and environment clearance at the earliest. About expressways, Gadkari said the Mumbai-Vadodara, Bengaluru-Chennai and Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressways are to be sanctioned by June 2017.
Further, the ambitious Rs 10 lakh-crore Bharatmala road project will subsume the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) implemented by the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in 1998. This may be one of the last mega projects of the BJP Government before it seeks public mandate in 2019, besides being the second-largest highway project after the NHDP that saw development of about 50,000 km of NHs as per global standards.
Gadkari, who reviewed the projects by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said a record 16,271 km of National Highways (NHs) have been awarded and 8,231 km constructed during the year 2016-17. He said an award will be constituted for the best performing Project Director and Regional Officer of the NHAI. Tenders for 33 wayside amenities are also to be floated by June 2017. Besides, electronic toll collection will be made available on all lanes on all toll plazas by March 31, 2018.
Referring to the problem of land acquisition as one of the hurdles in implementation of projects, Gadkari called for positive cooperation with the concerned state governments to tackle the issue. He also called for expeditious resolution of issues like forest clearances, appointment of independent engineers and change of scope, among other issues.
The first phase of Bharatmala project will be carried out at an estimated investment of Rs 5.35 lakh crore for building 29,000 km of highways network that includes economic corridor schemes, coastal and other roads. PMO earlier this month asked for Public Investment Board’s (PIB) clearance to the first phase of the project.
“After viewing the presentation by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, the PMO was of the view that a note should be floated for Public Investment Board approval,” said a road transport ministry official.
A blueprint of the Bharatmala project has already been finalised and detailed project reports (DPRs) are in the process of formation. “The Bharatmala project has been envisaged as an umbrella programme that will subsume unfinished parts of the NHDP and also focus on the new initiatives like creation of economic corridors, development of border and international connectivity roads, coastal and port connectivity roads and other corridors. NHDP is being implemented in various phases and includes Golden Quadrilateral connecting four metropolises besides North-South Corridor connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari and East-West Corridor joining Porbandar to Silchar,” said the official.
About 10,000 km of projects under NHDP are yet to be completed and most likely will be awarded by the end of the year.
The official said deliberations are underway for financing of the projects under Bharatmala and the NHAI could be delegated projects under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode as the NHAI board has the autonomy.