Government plans 27,000km economic corridors

[migflug]

Government plans 27,000km economic corridors
Dipak K Dash| TNN | Sep 14, 2016, 05.29 AM IST
HIGHLIGHTS

• The government plans to make 44 highway stretches totalling 27,000 km to be developed as 'economic corridors'
• The new plan is expected to be completed in six years.
• These packages are likely to require at least Rs 6 lakh crore investment

The Union highways ministry is preparing a proposal to seek the cabinet approval for this programme. (Representative image)
NEW DELHI: The government will make 44 highway stretches totalling 27,000 km to be developed as "economic corridors" for seamless movement of cargo vehicles, cut delays, deepen economic activities and create jobs. It will help in decongesting 30 top cities in the country by building ring roads and logistics hubs along these corridors.

This will be the biggest highway expan sion plan since the rolling out of Golden Quadrilateral and North South East West Corridor, totalling 13,000 km during the Vajpayee regime.

These stretches pass through and connect major hubs of economic activities such as manufacturing clusters and ports, and have been identified as "economic corridors". The new plan is expected to be completed in six years. The government is exploring several funding options, including road development cess, loans from agencies and also private investment.

Another 15,000 km will be developed as feeder routes to these economic corridors.Sources said that 40 interconnecting corridors will also be developed to link 44 economic corridors and the Golden Quadrilateral.This network will carry 80% of the country's freight. The government will also rebrand national highways as national corridors, economic corridors and feeder roads, a move aimed at helping in navigation and identify ing the roads. The corridors have been identified using satellite imagery .

TOI has learnt that the work of expanding these stretches will be carried out under the `Bharat Mala' programme, a highway project that will link ports, logistic hubs, border areas to boost cargo movement, exports and their overall growth.

 

[migflug]

Govt readies for next big push on roads
According to the initial plan, 35,000km of roads will be developed, of which 21,000km will be economic corridors and 14,000km will be feeder routes

Jyotika Sood

It is by far the most ambitious roads project since the previous NDA in 2001 embarked on the Golden Quadrilateral project. Photo: Mint
New Delhi: The government is proposing to develop 40 economic corridors spanning 21,000km of roads.

Not only will the project, entailing an investment of Rs3 trillion, improve freight movement by reducing distance and travel time, ease traffic bottlenecks and improve inter-city connectivity, it will also open up neglected regions of the country such as the north-east.

It is by far the most ambitious roads project since the previous National Democratic Alliance in 2001 embarked on the Golden Quadrilateral connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, entailing the development of 5,846km of four- and six-lane expressways costing Rs60,000 crore.

The government has identified 40 routes to be developed as economic corridors.

According to the initial plan, 35,000km of roads will be developed, out of which 21,000km will be economic corridors and the remaining 14,000km, feeder routes to facilitate movement of freight traffic. Of these 40 corridors, four are in north-east India.

The road ministry has hired consulting firm A.T. Kearney for the project, said a senior road ministry official, requesting anonymity. “We are waiting for the company to submit its final report, which is likely to come in a month,” the official said. “The project will be taken up in phased manner and further short-listing would be done out of these 40 to prioritize the routes.”

The project has been approved by road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari, the same person said. It still has to be approved by the Union cabinet.

The official cited above said economic corridors would address different concerns. For instance, the Agra-Gwalior-Shivpuri-Guna-Biaora-Dewas-Indore-Sendhwa-Dhule-Malegaon-Nashik-Mumbai corridor will reduce Agra-to-Mumbai road travel to 853km from around 1,200km at present, he said.

The economic corridors will open up India’s hinterland to development, said Jaijeet Bhattacharya, partner, infrastructure and government services, KPMG. “With economic corridors there will be continuous supply chain support available for regular and agriculture goods and it will also help connect the rural economy. India is not short of land; what is not available is connected land,” he said.

In terms of size, the economic corridor project will surpass the road ministry’s proposed National Grid project entailing the creation of a grid of 27 horizontal and vertical national highway corridors every 250km.

Transport economist G. Raghuram of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, said the economic corridors will have to be access-controlled (preventing free access from all sides) to ensure success because the country needs a backbone of controlled expressways.

The road ministry has been aggressively pursuing road projects, awarding 10,000km of contracts for the first time in 2015-16. It also completed the construction of 6,000km of roads, up 36% from a year earlier.

 

[Surya 1]

Modi government has a big responsibility on their head to fill the digs created by the thief congress government. They are working over time. Believe me, we shall see a totally different india by the time modi government finishes 10 years in center i.e by 2024. It will be a strong india, it shall be an india everybody would like to learn lesson from and keep relations with.

 

[migflug]

In terms of size, the economic corridor project will surpass the road ministry’s proposed National Grid project entailing the creation of a grid of 27 horizontal and vertical national highway corridors every 250km.

Government plans national highway grids for smooth travel; 27 corridors identified
By Dipak K. Dash, TNN | Jun 13, 2016, 03.13 PM IST
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READ MORE ON » Porbandar | NH | National Highway | Kolkata | four lane

NEW DELHI: India has over one lakh kilometres of national highways (NHs), but there is no scientific road network pattern and drivers can't take a straight road to reach from one place to the other. To address this, NHAI has prepared a grid of 27 horizontal and vertical national highway corridors at a distance of every 250 km crisscrossing the country.

All these stretches will be of four lanes and will provide more road space for seamless transport. The total length of these corridors, including ones such as Kanyakumari to Srinagar, Porbandar to Kolkata, Surat to Paradip Port, Rameswaram to Dehradun and Mangalore Port to Chennai Port, is about 36,600 km. Out of this, about 30,100 km are already NHs. But only 18,800 km of them are of four-lanes.


"The rest are either single or two lanes and we have missing NH link of about 6,500 km, which are either state highways or major district roads. These stretches need to be converted into NHs and widened to four lanes for smooth travel," said an official. Sources said going by the standard costing, the government will have to invest about Rs 25,000 crore for completing four-laning of the routes.

The preparation of the grids will help the government re-designate the NHs for easy identification. For example, all even number NH grids can be identified for roads connecting east to west and odd number for corridors joining north end to south."The grids will be important as the government is focusing on integrated transportation network. These grids will connect all major ports, which will help in quick evacuation and transport of cargo from one end to the other," another official said.

Sources said highway ministry has shared this plan with states and sought their views. "We want to be sure the states have not awarded or planned roads on PPP mode that are parallel to the identified routes," a source said. TOI has learnt that NHAI had made a detailed presentation to highway minister Nitin Gadakri in March. The proposed NH grid shall not only improve connectivity in each region and state capital but will also provide highway link to 12 major ports, 45 out of 53 million plus cities and 26 state capitals besides providing connectivity to major tourist and religious places.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/52723683.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text

 

[srshkmr]

I wish that trees cut down for this are bare minimum ..

My city will have huge impact . Coimbatore <=> Pollachi <=> Mettupalayam (Ooty Road)

 

[New Resolve]

Awesome Good luck , this is what you guys should be doing i.e looking after your own people instead of Obsessing about Pakistan.

 

[Echo_419]

I wish that trees cut down for this are bare minimum ..

My city will have huge impact . Coimbatore <=> Pollachi <=> Mettupalayam (Ooty Road)

Same here, we can't ignore the environment

 

[Odysseus]

Awesome Good luck , this is what you guys should be doing i.e looking after your own people instead of Obsessing about Pakistan.

Obsessing over Pakistan has made us fastest growing economy in the world. I think we are on the right track.

On topic: Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway's work is going to start this December.

 

[kaykay]

Indian national highways total length crossed 100,000 KM in 2016 but only around 25% of them are four lane and above. Hope we'll have a network of 50,000+ km four/Six/Eight lane highways by 2020. Possible.

 

[Acknowledge]

On topic: Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway's work is going to start this December.

Don't start counting on anything till land acquisition is done.
There are bazillion projects that start off right but end up stuck because of land acquisition.

So..has the land acquisition been done for this expressway?

 

[Odysseus]

Don't start counting on anything till land acquisition is done.
There are bazillion projects that start off right but end up stuck because of land acquisition.

So..has the land acquisition been done for this expressway?

Yes. The tehsils have already posted the list of farmers whos land is to be acquired in july and told them not to harvest the next crop.

Yesterday's news. Tenders will be floated next month.
http://m.thehindubusinessline.com/n...project-report-by-monthend/article9107813.ece