Traffic on a busy city road

Feb. 6: The ministry of urban development has advised Dispur to make a ring road around the city to decongest the main thoroughfares and check unplanned development.

In a recent letter to chief secretary Naba Kumar Das, the ministry advised construction of the road taking a cue from the Surat model. The ministry has also sent along details of the Surat project.

In that project, 60 per cent of the land acquired for the project will be returned to the landowners. Of the remaining 40 per cent, 15 to 20 per cent area will be used for roads, 5 per cent for parks, playgrounds, gardens and open spaces, 5 per cent for social infrastructure such as schools, dispensaries, fire stations and public utilities, 10 to 15 per cent for sale by appropriate authority for residential, commercial or industrial purposes.

The Surat Municipal Corporation and Surat Urban Development Authority had jointly come up with the model, which has the potential to generate around Rs 11,960 crore over a period of five years from the road development project.

The letter said the Surat model is being created without any financial assistance from the state government or the Centre. The increase in land value because of the project is going to pay for the development of the city and other infrastructure and will also save something for the government.

A ring road is a highway that encircles a town or a city, allowing inter-city traffic to remain away from the main thoroughfares and thus, facilitate decongestion.

Referring to various cities in the country, the ministry said rapid unplanned urbanisation had made commuting within the city limits a difficult proposition, as connecting roads are also very narrow and poorly planned. Inter-city traffic, too, passes through the main thoroughfares, creating more congestion.

Hence, the ministry said, a ring road, which also has room for planned development around it, was the need of the hour in an unplanned, congested city like Guwahati.

The ministry asked Dispur to issue necessary instructions to all authorities concerned for identifying the possibilities of the ring road and get a proper study done about various stages of the project.

New Delhi has two ring roads, a main one and an outer one with a combined length of 87km.

Guwahati is among the cities with highest traffic congestion in the country. Although the number of vehicles here has been increasing every year, no noticeable initiatives have been taken to either expand the existing roads or chalk out a plan to solve the problem permanently.

Consultant engineer J.N. Khataniar said a ring road was a feasible option. “The existing bypass can be used as the southern side of the ring. There is already a road connecting Uzan Bazar, Narengi and Khanapara. After widening and repairing, this road can be used as a part of the ring. The existing road connecting Uzan Bazar and Jalukbari, too, is congested. So, a new road can be constructed along the Brahmaputra connecting Uzan Bazar and Jalukbari. If that is done, the ring will be complete, but we require people eager to develop the city,” he said.