The national highway from Berhampur to Icchapuram

Berhampur, Nov. 18: The 180km four-lane highway between Andhra Pradesh’s Ichhapuram and Bhubaneswar via Berhampur will be made into a six-lane road.

“A feasibility study is in progress,” said National Highways Authority of India deputy general manager Prabhat Ranjan Behruia.

“The task of feasibility study has been entrusted to AECOM, a Gurgaon-based agency. We expect to launch the six-lane highway soon,” he said.

“Our norms say if the passenger car unit (PCU) is more than 23,000 a day, we can opt for a six-lane highway. During a recent study at Kespur in Ganjam and the portion of the highway that passes through Berhampur, we found that the PCU was 28,000 a day. A six-lane highway could accommodate more vehicles on the road and ensure passengers’ safety,” he said, adding that construction of the six-lane highway had already begun from Chennai.

Behruia said of the 158km road from Icchapur to Ganjam (50.80km), Ganjam to Sunakhala (56km) and Sunakhala to Khurda (51km), construction of 141km has been completed. “A road under bridge at Chhatrapur is to be constructed by the NHAI, for which the Indian Rare Earths Limited has to hand over the site.