Making more room

New Delhi, March 5: The Union cabinet has approved a Rs 22,000-crore project for four and six laning of 4,000 kilometres of national highways covering 16 states.

?The project is expected to be completed by 2009,? shipping, road transport and highways minister T. R. Baalu told reporters after the cabinet meeting here today.

The project is called the NHDP III (National Highway Development project). The Centre will bear 40 per cent of the cost of the project. The rest will come from private players under the BOT (built operate transfer) scheme.

As much as Rs 2,000 crore will be spent on acquisition of land and the rest will be for civil works, said Baalu. The project will cover state capitals, places of economic importance, ports and important tourism and pilgrimage sites, he added.

As of January 31, 2005, 5,418 kilometres of NHDP has been completed. The expenditure so far has amounted to Rs 24,174 crore. According to the Economic Survey, 2004-05, there are 2,678 kilometres under construction.

Under the NHDP, 14,279 kilometres of national highways will be converted to 4/6 lanes, at a total estimated cost of Rs 65,000 crore (at 2004 prices). NHDP is the largest highway project ever undertaken by the country and with the shortest time span for completion.

The NHDP includes the golden quatrilateral (GQ-5846 kilometres) connecting the four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. It also includes the North-South and East-West corridors, connecting Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south and Silchar in the east to Pobander in the west. It also consists of port connectivity and other projects, which amounts to 1,1333 kilometres.

Indian roads carry 85 per cent of the passengers and 70 per cent of the freight traffic of the country.

The highways, even though they make up only 2 per cent of the road network by length, carry 40 per cent of this traffic.

The cabinet has also approved the special accelerated road development programme in the Northeastern region under which 6,396 kilometres of roads would be developed in two phases at an estimated investment of Rs 10,500 crore.