Govt to put expressway projects on fast track

NEW DELHI: After facing flak for delays in awarding road sector projects, the ministry of shipping, road transport and highways is planning to accelerate clearances of its new expressway programme. The blueprint for the entire 1,000-km stretch is expected to be completed by March and all contracts are proposed to be awarded by December.

���So far the ministry has finalised development programme for only 400 km of the expressway stretch. The clearances for remaining 600 km would now be completed by March this year,��� an official source said. Work on the entire stretch would begin from next year by when contracts would be awarded, he added.

The 1,000-km expressway programme is being implemented by the ministry under phase VI of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). Under it, the government would award projects worth Rs 36,000 crore in 2007-08.

Out of the 1,000 km of expressways under phase VI of NHDP that was given cabinet approval in November last year, only 400 km, consisting of the Mumbai-Vadodara stretch, had been identified so far.

���Based on the recommendations of the consultants, we will award the remaining stretches. The consultants will submit their report by March-end,��� a ministry official said. The stretches under consideration include Bangalore-Chennai, Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Meerut, Delhi-Jaipur and Kolkata-Dhanbad. Out of these, not more than three stretches will get final clearance.

The expressway project is slated to be completed by 2016. The total project cost of NHDP-VI is Rs 16,680 crore. Out of this, Rs 9,000 crore would come from the private sector and the balance amount of Rs 7,680 crore as viability gap funding, cost of land acquisition, utility shifting, consultancy would be met by the government. The expressways would be built through public-private partnership on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis following the design, build, finance operate pattern.