Development of National Highways 

Keeping in view the demand of the road traffic, the Government has initiated National Highway Development programmes in phases.  The National Highways Development Project  (NHDP) Phase-I and Phase-II consists of 4-laning of National Highways connecting four metropolis of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi, namely Golden Quadrilateral, North-South and East-West Corridor and Port Connectivity and other National Highway projects.  The Port Connectivity projects include improvement of links to the 11 numbers of major ports. NHDP is being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). 

In the Golden Quadrilateral out of a total length of 5,846 kms 4-laning of 5,319 kms have been completed and work on balance 527 kms is in progress.

The Phase-II of NHDP mainly comprises North-South and East-West Corridor connecting Srinagar to Kannihakumari and Silchar to Porbandar.  The length of the North-South and East-West Corridor in Phase-II is 6,240 kms out of which works have been awarded in 4,684 km during the period from June, 2004, to April, 2006.  The balance length to be awarded is 1,481 kms, which includes 519 kms of some stretches in Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal.  The works in the balance length except about this 519 kms stretch will be awarded by June, 2006.  The section in Jammu & Kashmir (318 km) involves difficult terrain and climatic conditions for which the preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) is still in progress.  The alignment of the part section of the East-West Corridor passing through wild life sanctuary in West Bengal was to be changed as the original alignment was not cleared by the Ministry of Environment.  The preparation of the DPR of the re-alignment has now been taken up.  These sections in Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal are targeted to be awarded by September, 2006.

Out of the total length completed so far in the works mentioned above, 2,952 kms have been completed during the period June, 2004 to April, 2006.  The 4-laning of Delhi-Mumbai Corridor of the Golden Quadrilateral (1419 kms) was fully completed in the year 2005.  

During the year 2005, NHAI has awarded contracts for implementation of the works on NHDP for more than 5,000 kms length of National Highways, which is the maximum length awarded by any single agency in any one year on such works in the history of the development of National Highways.  During the period June, 2004 to April, 2006, 149 contracts have been awarded for an aggregate length of 6,376 km of National Highways.  The NHAI has also taken up the maintenance of this improved National Highways through operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts.  During the period of May, 2004 to April, 2006, 23 such O&M contracts for an aggregate length of 2,147 kms have been awarded. 

Further Development 

The UPA Government has also taken major initiatives proposed for further development of National Highways through phases-III to VII of NHDP.  The Committee on Infrastructure, headed by the Prime Minister, has proposed a massive National Highways Development Programme for the next seven years (2005-2012) which envisages the following:  

Ø       Completion of GQ and EW-NS corridors.

Ø       4-laning of 10,000 kms under NHDP Phase-III.

Ø       2-laning with paved shoulders of 20,000 kms of National Highways under NHDP Phase-IV.

Ø       6-laning of 6,500 kms selected stretches of National Highways under NHDP Phase-V.

Ø       Development of 1,000 kms of expressways under NHDP Phase-VI.

Ø       Construction of ring roads, flyovers and bypasses on selected stretches under NHDP Phase-VII.

  

Public Private Partnership

 Due to huge investment requirement for the development of roads, particularly the National Highways, the Government has adopted the policy of encouragement of participation of the private sectors in the National Highway development.  It has now been decided that all the sub-projects of NHDP Phase-III to Phase-VII would be taken up mainly on the basis of public private partnership.  During the period from June, 2004 to April, 2006, 43 BOT toll/annuity based projects of NHDP Phase-II and NHDP Phase-IIIA have been awarded by NHAI for an aggregate length of 2,455 kms. 

National Highway Development Project Phase III 

There is a programme of 4-laning of 10,000 km of National Highways primarily through public private partnership on BOT basis under NHDP Phase-III.  The Government has approved up gradation of 4,000 km under NHDP Phase-III A in March, 2005, at an estimated cost of Rs. 22,000 crore as also to take advance action in the form of preparation of the Detailed Project Reports for the balance 6000 km under Phase-III B.  4-laning works on 1,090 kms as a part of Phase-III A is under progress with 17 number of contracts. 

The Committee on Infrastructure has approved in principle, 6-laning of 6,500 kms of National Highways under NHDP Phase-V and development of 1000 km of expressways in February, 2006, under NHDP Phase-VI. 

Development of North Eastern Region 

The Government has also taken up schemes for improvement of National Highways and other roads in North Eastern Region.  This aims at improving road connectivity to remote places of North Eastern Region.  It envisages two / four laning of about 3,251 kms of National Highways and two laning / improvement of about 2,500 kms of state roads and a length of 1,888 km roads of strategic importance.  This will also ensure connectivity of 85 district headquarters in the eight North-Eastern states, to the National Highways. 

 The Government has approved Phase A of this programme which consists of improvement of 1,110 kms of National Highways and 200 kms of State roads/roads of strategic importance at an estimated cost of Rs. 4,618 crore.  The Government has also approved preparation of the Detailed Project Reports for the Phase B of the projects, which involves improvement of 2,141 km of National Highways and 2,981 km of State roads/roads of strategic importance.  The balance length of improvement of 1,027 kms of State roads is Phase C of this programme.  NHAI has already started work in Assam under the East-West Corridor of NHDP and during the last two years 24 contracts for an aggregate length of 584 kms have been awarded. 

Overall Development of National Highways 

In addition to the National Highways entrusted to NHAI for improvement under NHDP, other improvement works on the National Highways are being carried out by the respective State Governments and the Border Roads Organisation on an agency basis for the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways.  The overall physical achievements in respect of development of National Highways under different categories of improved works carried out by NHAI, BRO and the State Governments during the period from May, 2004 to March, 2006 is as:

 

Widening of four lane	3068 km
Strengthening of existing weak two - lane	4485 km
Improvement of Riding Quality Programme (IRQP)	5693 km
Widening single lane to two-lane	1693 km
Bridges constructed	204 nos.

 
 The allocation of fund for the National Highways and State Roads is:

Amount are in Rs. Crore 

Year	National Highways	State Roads	Roads of Economic Importance
2004-2005	1848.00	868.00	96.00
2005-2006	3269.74	1535.36	170.54
2006-2007	6407.45	1535.46	170.61

           

For improvement of State roads 1,257 numbers of works under Central Road Fund scheme and 111 numbers of works under State Roads of Economic Importance and
Inter-State Connectivity (E&I) Scheme have been sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 2,702.55 crore and Rs. 425.16 crore respectively, during the last two years.

Declaration of new National Highways 

The Government has declared in March, 2006, Srinagar-Kargil-Leh road (422 km) as National Highway No.1D and Eastern Peripheral Expressway bypassing Delhi connecting NH-1 to NH-2 (134 km) as a National Expressway No.2. 

Environmental Consideration 

Green Highways: Keeping in view the concern of the environment alongwith the development of National Highways the NHAI has formulated a tree plantation strategy.  Till now more than 7.5 lakh trees and more than 8 lakh shrubs have been planted mostly through involvement of the State forest departments. 

Resettlement of the project affected people 

NHAI has adopted project specific resettlement and rehabilitation frameworks.  Besides providing additional assistance to the project affect families certain community development works have also been undertaken.  Some of them are resettlement of about 245 squatters in Kanpur, relocation of shopkeepers/vendors at Sherghatti in Bihar and at Bagoda in Jharkhand, resettlement of about 450 squatters from Rajkot bypass.  Resettlement of about 40 commercial squatters in Tumkur district in Karnataka and resettlement of about 140 commercial squatters in Chitradurga district in Karnataka. 

Relief works in respect of Tsunami hit areas 

Several parts of the country were heavily devastated due to sudden effects of Tsunami, which occurred in December, 2004.  The Ministry took several steps for restoration of such damages on National Highways and other roads in Andaman & Nicobar Islands as listed below:

Ø                   Sanctioning of repair works amounting to Rs. 53 crore on National Highways.

Ø                   Launching of Bailey bridge on NH-45A near Karaikal in Pondicherry at the site of damaged Arasalar Bridge.

Ø                   Restoration of all other roads in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Ø                   Sanctioning of Arasalar Bridge in km. 178/4 of NH-45A in Pondicherry at a cost of Rs. 4.70 crore.

 

Agreements with Pakistan for bus services:

          Agreements have been signed on December 21, 2005, with Pakistan for introduction of bus service between Amritsar – Lahore and Amritsar – Nankana Sahib. Regular bus service between Amritsar – Lahore has commenced from 24.1.2006 whereas bus services between Amritsar – Nankana Sahib has started from March 24, 2006.

Setting up of a Commissionerate of Road Safety and road safety fund:

            The Government has decided to set up Commissionerate on Road Safety and Traffic Management by bringing together related disciplines such as, road engineering, vehicles engineering, enforcement, statistical research and analysis, and information, education and communication.  The Government has also decided to set up a dedicated Road Safety Fund by earmarking one percent of the cess amount available under Central Road Fund (CRF) for National Highways. 

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