A dusty, potholed stretch of National Highway-33

Jamshedpur, Dec. 11: The lifeline of the state is all set to get a fresh lease of life.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has drawn up elaborate plans to revamp NH-33 between Barhi, near the Bihar border, and Baharagora, close to the Bengal border, and convert it into a four-lane road with fewer sharp bends.

Spadework for the ambitious project has already begun. NHAI officials said a 100-year-old railway overbridge between Ranchi and Ramgarh was being dismantled to make room for the four-lane highway.

The revamped NH-33 would no longer meander around hills, but have a straight alignment. The stretch passing though Chutupali valley between Ranchi and Ramgarh will be realigned. So, will be other stretches between Ramgarh and Barhi, officials added.

Bishnu Ram, the chief engineer of National Highway (Jharkhand Circle), said that the paperwork was almost done. The project will be executed by the NHAI in close co-ordination with the Jharkhand Circle, he added.

“The four-laning work along the 333km stretch between Barhi and Baharagora will be done in four phases. The detailed project reports (DPRs) are being prepared separately. Except for the 56km stretch between Mahulia and Baharagora, which has been put under phase-IV, work on the other three DPRs are in progress,” said Ram. The first three phases include a 40km road between Barhi and Hazaribagh, a 198km stretch from the latter to Rangaon and 277km between Rangaon and Mahulia. The chief engineer said that a high-level meeting of NHAI and state government officials was held in Ranchi recently. At the meeting, NHAI representatives had asked officials of the Jharkhand Circle to provide logistics support for realignment of the national highway.

“Senior NH officials said that the realignment work requires a detailed survey of the area to be affected. The government has to look into the suitability of the route and also take into consideration the factor related to environment. We are doing our best to provide our input at the earliest,” Ram said.

At present, NH-33 is just seven metres wide. In its four-lane avatar, the total width of the highway would be around 18m.

The NHAI’s decision has come as a major relief for the state government, which had wanted to revamp the NH-33 ahead of the 34th National Games.

Senior officials of the road construction department said they had sent a proposal requesting Rs 174.75 crore for repair of all national highways passing through the state before the Games. Of the total amount, Rs 10 crore was meant for repair of stretches of the highway that are under the jurisdiction of the Jamshedpur division of the road construction department. This proposal had been pushed to the low-priority list.