Gurgaon Expressway may be farther than you thought

December 20, 2007

You may not be able to make that superfast dash to Gurgaon on January 1 after all. And even afterwards, the drive won’t be as easy as you may imagine — not for a while at least.

“We may miss the December 31 deadline by two-three days,” RP Indoria, chief project director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said, contradicting reported comments by a senior colleague. Even then, the Hero Honda crossing underpass and Kapasehra flyover won’t be ready, and the terrible traffic bottlenecks will stay.

Nor will the Expressway fulfil all the essential requirements of a high-speed corridor — such as median fencing, foot-overbridges, and service lanes for local traffic. Work on toll plazas and signages looks far from nearing completion.

Indoria said NHAI aimed to provide “relief to harried and harassed commuters”, but seemed to suggest its focus was on VIPs. “We might open the Rao Tula Ram Marg-Palam flyover and domestic airport loop in the first week of January… Since RTR-Palam flyover and loop is used by VVIPs we would like to ensure all safety measures before we open these,” he said.

All of which indicates the hyped-up “throwing open” of the Expressway could turn out to be only a technical opening of a certain stretch, with little change in the commuter’s actual experience.

Source: hindustantimes.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Uncategorized

APPROVAL FOR NEW PHASES OF NHDP, PROPOSAL OF DEDICATED BODY ON ROAD SAFETY AND AMENDMENT IN THE MOTOR VEHICLE ACT MARK THE ACTIVITIES IN THE ROAD SECTOR DURING 2007

December 20, 2007

The Government’s approval for construction of Ring Roads/Bypasses etc. around the major cities across the country, upgradation of National Highways under NHDP Phase III A and III B, awarding of 18 contracts by NHAI under NHDP Phase III, IV and VI and approval of modified SARDP-NE programme for widening of NHs in NE States marked the major activities of the Department of Road Transport and Highways during the year 2007. The Department of Road Transport notified the rules for accreditation of bus body builders, Government approved the amendments in the Motor Vehicle Act and Sunder Committee recommended the creation of a dedication body on road safety and traffic management during the year.

ROAD SECTOR

– India has about 3.3 million kilometers road network, which is the second largest in the world. It includes National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads and Rural Roads.

– National Highways (NHs) having length of 66590 km, constitute only 2 per cent of the total road network but share approximately 40 per cent of the total traffic on roads.

– Overall Achievements made by the Ministry through all agencies i.e. NHAI, State PWDs and BRO under different schemes of development of National Highways during the calendar year 2007 from January 2007 to October, 2007 are as under

Name of Scheme	Targets	Achievements
1) Widening to 4-lanes (km)	1649.35	1065.98
2) Strengthening of existing weak pavement (kms)	412.36	929.99
3) Widening to 2-lanes (km)	783.08	847.60
4) Improvement of riding quality (IRQP) (km)	1477.87	1525.55
5) Rehabilitations / Construction of Bridges ( No.)	97	97
6) Construction of Bypasses (No.)	8	2
7) Improvement of low grade sections (km)	20.85	41.47

National Highways Development Projects Phase I, II, III and V

The present status of NHDP I, II, III and V as on 30th November, 2007, is as under:

Golden Quadrilateral (GQ): Out of total Length of 5846 Km, four laning of 5629 km has been completed and the balance length is under implementation.

During the calendar year 128 km length has been completed.

North-South & East-West Corridors: Out of total length of 7300 km for four laning, 1559 km length has been completed and 4762 km length is under implementation. The remaining length is under various stages towards award of work.

During the calendar year 707 km length has been completed.

Port Connectivity Project & Other National Highways: Under Port Connectivity, out of 380 km, 163 Km has been completed and 211 km is under implementation. The work is yet to be awarded in remaining length. Out of 945 km of other National Highway, so far 337 km has been completed and four laning of 605 km is under implementation.

During the calendar year 28 km length has been completed for the Port Connectivity

National Highways Development Project Phase – III, V, VI & VII

Government has approved up gradation of 780 Km of National Highways under NHDP Phase-IIIA in Bihar at an estimated cost of Rs,6782 Crore in April 2007. With this approval, total length approved under Phase-IIIA is 4815 km at an estimated cost of Rs.33,069 crore.

Government has approved upgradation of 7294 km under NHDP Phase IIIB at an estimated cost of Rs.47557 crore in April 2007.

With approval of NHDP Phase-IIIB, total length for NHDP Phase-III is 12109 km at an estimated cost of Rs.80,626 crore. NHDP Phase-III is targeted for completion by December, 2013.

12 nos of contracts involving a length of 749 km under NHDP phase III have been awarded so far.

Government has approved construction of stand alone Ring Roads, Bypasses, Grade Separators, Flyovers, elevated roads, tunnels, road over bridges, underpasses, service roads, etc. on BOT (Toll) mode under NHDP Phase VII in December 2007 at an estimated cost of Rs.16680 crore.

In all 18 Nos. Contracts for the length of 928 km amounting to Rs. 6816 Crore were awarded by NHAI under NHDP Phase III,IV & VI.

Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North-East (SARDP-NE)

The modified SARDP-NE programme approved by Govt. on 1.10.2007 envisages widening of 3846 km of National Highways and improvement including widening/improvement of 4891 km of State roads. This will ensure the connectivity of remaining 58 district head quarters to the National Highways / State Roads in the 8 North-Eastern States.

Ministry has set up a High Powered Inter Ministerial Committee to approve and co-ordinate individual sub projects under SARDP-NE. Till date Committee has approved various sub projects covering 664 km length at an estimated cost of Rs. 1613 Crore under Phase “A” of the program.

Central Road Fund

Under the Central Road Fund Scheme, an amount of Rs. 12830 crore has been earmarked for all categories of roads (including share of Railways). Out of this, Rs.6541.06 crore have been allotted for National Highways, Rs.1565.32 crore for the State Roads, Rs.3825 crore for the Rural Roads and a sum of Rs.173.93 crore to be given as grants for development of Inter-State Connectivity and Economic Importance Roads. An amount of Rs. 724.69 Crore has been allotted to the Ministry of Railways for construction of Road Over Bridges/ Road Under Bridges and other safety works in unmanned level crossing.

During the calendar year 2007 till 30^th November 2007, 408 proposals amounting to Rs. 1263.09 Crore have been approved for improvement of State Roads under CRF.

Economic Importance & Inter-State connectivity (E&I and ISC)

In the current financial year 2007-2008 an allocation of funds of Rs 173.93 Crore has been made for E & I and ISC.

During the calendar year so far, 41 nos. (16 of EI and 25 ISC) proposals amounting to Rs. 347.79 Crore with a central share of 302.93 Crore have been given in-principle approval for improvement of State Roads under Economic Importance & Inter-state Connectivity Scheme.

Public Private Partnership

BOT (Toll) Based Projects: So far 82 (56 NHAI+ 26 MoSRTH) projects valued about Rs. 23104.31 Crore on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis (Toll based projects) have been awarded. Out of this, 32 (8 NHAI+ 24 MoSRTH) projects have been completed and 50 projects are under progress.

During the calendar year, 10 (NHAI) contracts for 698 km of length have been awarded on BOT (Toll) basis.

TRANSPORT SECTOR

Accreditation of bus body builders:

This Department has notified the rules for accreditation of bus body builders on 23.3.2007. As per these rules, the bus body builders in the country would be accredited through the system of Zonal and National Level Accreditation Board. It is expected that these rules would come into effect from 23^rd March 2008. This would bring uniformity in the bus body design and enhance safety and comfort to the passenger

Amendment in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988

The Union Cabinet in its meeting held on 1^st March 2007 has approved the proposal of this Ministry to amend the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to enhance penalties for various traffic offences, to delegate powers to the states , to make the transport authorities in the States more responsive and to rationalize various provisions in accordance with new/emerging requirements as well as compensation to road accident victims. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2007 has been introduced in Rajya Sabha on 15.5.2007 and the same has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture for examination and appropriate recommendation.

Creation of Dedicated body on Road Safety and Traffic Management

A committee under the chairmanship of Shri S.Sunder, Former Secretary erstwhile Ministry of Surface Transport was constituted on 23.11.2005 to deliberate and make recommendations for creation of dedicated body on Road Safety and Traffic Management. The Committee has submitted its report on 20.2.2007. The main recommendations of the Committee include creation of an apex body i.e. National Road Safety & Traffic Management Board at national level to promote road safety and improve traffic management in India, through an Act of the Parliament. In its advisory role, it has been proposed that the Board will advise Government on various road safety aspects. Creation of similar State level boards has also been suggested in the report. The Committee has suggested earmarking of minimum one per cent of total proceeds of cess on diesel and petrol for Road Safety Fund. A note for Committee of Secretaries for creation of a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board is being finalised.

Carriage by Road Act, 2007

The carriage by Road Act, 2007 been notified in the Gazette of India on 1^st October 2007 after obtaining presidential assent on the Carriage by Road Bill, 2007 passed by Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on 7.9.07 and 10.9.07 respectively.. The new Act would replace the Carriers’ Act, 1865 and would cater to the need of the modern day trade and transport by road. The new Act would help to make the transport system transparent and modernise the systems and procedures of the transportation trade through registration of common carrier. It also provides scope for apportionment of liability between the common carrier and the consignor.

National Road Safety Council:

10^th meeting of the National Road safety Council was held on 21^st April 2007 at Coimbatore As a follow up to this meeting, a high powered committee under the chairmanship of Transport Minister, Tamil Nadu has been set up to address the problems faced by the States in enforcement of the provisions relating to overloading, speed governors, speed fixing limit of motor vehicles, other road safety issues and to suggest proper mechanism to formulate an effective National Road safety Policy.

Road safety activities:

During the current year grants-in-aid have been sanctioned to 121 number of NGOs for carrying out road safety activities in the country.

Refresher training to about 60000 drivers of heavy commercial vehicles in the unorganized sector has been sanctioned during the year 2007-08

Source: pib.nic.in

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under CEN 278, Investment and Finance

Taj expressway set to be completed by 2010

December 19, 2007

The Rs 2,250-crore Taj Expressway project, which envisages a six-laned 165 km stretch connecting Greater Noida to Agra, would reduce travel time between Delhi to Agra from the current four hours to around two hours.

The project, which is being implemented on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis by the concessionaire Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL), is expected to be completed by February 2010, before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games.

A special purpose vehicle by the name Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL) has been incorporated recently to implement the project by the concessionaire. The project had been awarded to the JAL on the basis of competitive bidding by the UP government through the Taj Expressway Industrial Development Authority (TEA).

Though the concession agreement between the UP government and JAL was signed in February 2003, and the implementation of the project was delayed due to various judicial inquiries over it, JAL officials said they would be able to complete it by February 2010, the original deadline of the project.

Jaypee officials said they have already carried out surveys, studies, investigations, design and engineering work. They have also finalised the alignment and have obtained clearance from the Union environment ministry, and construction work for the first 5 km has already started.

JIL has to construct the six-lane access controlled expressway on left bank of the Yamuna at its own cost. For this, TEA has to provide around 1,775 hectares of land, while in addition to this, TEA also has to provide 2,500 hectares of land for development along the expressway, which JIL would use for commercial, industrial and residential development purposes.

Apart from this, JIL would have to levy and collect toll from the users for the concession period of 36 years. Once the concession period is over, JIL would hand over the project to TEA at nil cost. Since it is an infrastructure project, JIL, sources say, would be entitled for a tax holiday for 10 year period out of 15 years, starting from the commissioning of the project.

The expressway would have 37 underpasses, three main toll plazas, six plazas on the interchange loop, and 42 minor bridges.

Source: business-standard.com

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A K Bhattacharya: India`s infrastructure puzzle

December 19, 2007

National highways in India have seen a dramatic improvement over the last decade. Improvements are more evident in shorter stretches. For instance, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Agra are now well-connected with Delhi. Similarly, the highway that connects Mumbai with Pune can easily compare with the best anywhere in the world. This is true of many other national highways connecting major cities in southern and eastern India.

Many of these roads can be used only on payment of toll charges. Going by the available statistics on toll collections, these roads have become the preferred option for motorists and even heavy vehicle drivers. In fact, the toll charges are quite low compared to the benefits they offer to the road users. There is a clear case for raising these toll charges so that the maintenance of the roads can be ensured without any funds constraint. Not surprisingly, the National Highway Authority of India is planning to build more such toll roads connecting different cities across the country.

Yet, better highways have not led to a reduction in the total travelling time. This is ironical. If you are travelling from Jaipur to Delhi, you will take at least 45 minutes to an hour to cover a distance of about 10 kilometres within the city before reaching the national highway. Once on the highway, the journey is smooth and fast with about 250 kilometres being covered in about three and a half hours. The problem starts again once you are about to enter the city of Delhi. And depending on your final destination point, this might mean an additional travel time of a couple of hours. It is the same story if you were to travel by road from Chandigarh to Delhi.

So, national highways have made driving easy once you get out of the city. But to reach a destination, you need to travel through the city. And the bottleneck is at the entry point of the city. Nothing much has been done in any of these cities to decongest the arterial access roads. The city of Delhi may have seen more flyovers in the last few years, but the impact has been marginal because the growth in the vehicular population in the city has also been phenomenal.

Airlines should have gained from this increasing vehicular congestion at the entry points of all cities. But pause for a moment to reflect on what is happening to airport congestions in almost all the major cities, you will notice a virtual re-run of what has already happened to Indian highways. The flying time between Delhi and Mumbai is only about an hour and a half. But the wait on the tarmac (in addition to the early check-in requirements because of security reasons) before the aircraft can take off is almost half an hour. There is another 30-45 minutes of hovering in the skies before the aircraft can actually land and you can be taken to the arrival terminal building. In effect, you end up waiting for almost the same time that you take to cover the actual distance. All this is due to airport congestion. Gone are the days when once you were airborne, you could confidently estimate the time by which you would be home. Consequently, there is little to choose between taking a Delhi-Chandigarh flight and travelling this sector by car.

In any other country, the railways should have benefited from this immensely. Since most railway stations are located in the heart of these cities, there is no long wait before one can reach the final point of destination. But the irony is that the Indian Railways has failed to take full advantage of this situation. The Shatabdi trains that run on these sectors could have easily become a preferred option for those who fly or travel by road on such sectors. But the quality of service and an erratic punctuality record are major problems for the Indian Railways.

Things might change though in the next couple of years. Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore would get new or completely refurbished airports with a capacity to handle more passengers without causing congestion and delays. There might be more expressways connecting more cities. Even the Indian Railways is planning to launch faster trains to connect different cities in all the regions.

But the worries might still remain. India’s infrastructure problems arise not just from its inability to create facilities with adequate capacity. Equally frustrating is the failure of most managers of these infrastructure projects to identify the last-mile problems and fix them before they become unmanageable. Even the country’s best-managed infrastructure project, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, is not free from this malaise. And the solution does not lie with these individual project managers. There is an urgent need for the civic authorities in each of these cities to move in tandem with the infrastructure project managers and create necessary facilities within the cities to resolve the last-mile problems and remove other bottlenecks so that the full benefits of these huge projects accrue to the people.

Source: business-standard.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Investment and Finance

From Delhi to Gurgaon in 15-20 mins

December 19, 2007

NEW DELHI/GURGAON: If you spend hours fretting and fuming while trying to get from Gurgaon to Delhi and vice versa, here’s some good news. On December 31, all flyovers on the 27-km Gurgaon-Delhi expressway will be opened. That includes the one curving across the road to IGI airport, which means going to catch a flight would also become less of a pain.

National Highways Authority of India claimed this deadline is final — there will be no extension. Toll on this expressway — which will reduce Delhi-Gurgaon travel time to 15-20 minutes from the current hour-long agony — will not be charged right away. In fact, talks are still on to fix the toll amount as well as its modalities.

While the final toll amount will be announced shortly, indications are that it will be Rs 15-16 for the entire stretch, but 50% less for vehicles regularly commuting between Gurgaon and Delhi and the other way round. In other words, Gurgaon residents working in Delhi and Delhi residents working in Gurgaon would have to shell out Rs 7.50 or Rs 8 — possibly not such a high amount considering the convenience.

Two-wheelers, three-wheelers and all slow-moving traffic will not be allowed on the expressway. These will have to take the service lane adjacent to the expressway.

NHAI’s member, technical, Nirmaljeet Singh said: “As of now all the flyovers except the one at Palam are operational. This too will be open before 2008.” Said another official, “We have put the expansion joints and now curing is in progress. Just a few things remain to be done and they will be done in the year’s last week when traffic will be less on certain days because of government holidays.”

Singh added that the loop connecting to the domestic airport would be operational by the year-end. This means the current jam in the approach to the airport would ease up somewhat. It will fully clear up once the new domestic terminal being constructed between 1A and 1B is completed.

While toll tax on vehicles will be levied only after the independent consultant gives a satisfactory report of the working of the toll plazas, the one near Delhi is a state-of-the-art 32-lane plaza, designed for easy traffic flow.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Uncategorized

Govt planning toll on two-lane highways too

December 17, 2007

NEW DELHI: Driving on national highways is set to get more expensive with the government planning to start tolling even two-lane stretches besides intensifying the fee-collection across the golden quadrilateral (GQ).

Tolling was so far confined to four and six-lane highways and expressways where upgradation work has been completed. But soon, you would be stopping at toll plazas even on incomplete stretches of highways that link the four metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

However, a major change in policy is the move to charge users for driving on two-lane highways that form nearly 55% of the national network of 66,590 km. Under the new toll policy, the ministry of road transport and highways intends to levy toll on 20,000 km of highways which are to be taken up for upgradation through the public-private partnership route.

“On a four-lane highway, a car user has to pay about 65 paise per km. Now, the plan is to provide the same quality road surface with paved shoulders on two-lane highways and have proper signages. The cost that we are proposing will be 60% of the four-lane cost (roughly 39 paise per km),” road & highways said secretary Brahm Dutt.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Express highway project delayed due to departmental blockades

December 17, 2007

Lucknow, December 16 Even though the state government has started a number of road projects in the last six months, Amar Shaheed Path Express Highway, proposed and inaugurated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpaee, still has a long way to go. Even after six years since its construction was started, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) could only finish 75 per cent of the work. The project was inaugurated on September 22, 2001 with a stipulated deadline of 36 months. However, due to various constraints, the road project work progressed at a snail’s pace.

A senior NHAI official said they had to face various hurdles like land acquisition and clearances from various government organisations, etc.

“It took us long to get clearances for constructing railway overbridges from the railway authorities. At some places, the land acquisition delayed the work. The authorities were not supportive,” he said.

Talking to The Indian Express, Deputy General Manager (technical), NHAI, J S Parmar said all bottlenecks have been removed and remaining work is expected to be over by June 2008.

“There were certain problems but they have been resolved. Of the total three overbridges falling in way of the highway, one is completed and work on other two will start soon. Left out road stretches would also be completed,” he said.

He added land acquisition or getting clearances were not the only reasons for the delay. “The project was revised a few times after work started. Like, two underpasses and 1.5-km-long viaduct near Gomti Nagar were added subsequently,” Parmar said.

Besides, the NHAI officials blame the contractor of the project, Atlanta Ltd, for slow progress of work. “We held meetings with them and asked them to carry out project in time. We also warned them if they didn’t work efficiently, their license will be cancelled. The work is going smoothly at the moment,” said another NHAI official.

The 22-km-long highway connects NH-25 (Lucknow-Kanpur) and NH-28 (Lucknow-Faizabad) via NH-56 (Lucknow-Sultanpur) passing through the city. “The highway will act as an outer ring road. It may not directly benefit local commuters, but traffic congestion will reduce on city roads. The heavy vehicles or the commuters going to Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Faizabad and Kanpur could travel on it without entering the city. Only a few important crossings have been left on the highway so that the vehicles do not get slowed down, causing jams,” said Parmar.

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Feasibility study of 6-laning Pune-Satara Road begins

December 16, 2007

Pune, December 15 A Feasibility study of the six-laning of the 145-km Pune-Satara stretch has begun. The work for the same will begin in 15 months and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has appointed Consultancy Engineering Services (CES) for the feasibility study. The six laning of this stretch was proposed last year with traffic on the stretch increasing along with five others stretches in the state. Pune project director Prashant Kodaskar NHAI said that the project will be given for Designed Build Finance Operations (DBFO) and the outlay for the same has not yet been estimated and it will done after drawing tenders for the same.

While technical manager NHAI SD Chitnis, said that six lanes would increase the width of the road by atleast 10 metres. The present width is 25 metres and the six-laning would make it to 35 metres.

Plans are afoot to have service roads as well develop the junctions and also will have concrete structures.

“Sub-ways and overbridges will be part of the six laning and the feasibility study will help us on the same,” he said. The construction activity will start only in 2009 after reviewing the feasibility study.

Source: expressindia.com

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Land crunch, Green nod weigh down NHDP

December 15, 2007

NEW DELHI: The UPA government’s flagship programme, the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), has been delayed due to various reasons, including the government’s inability to acquire land. While no contracts have been awarded so far under phase-V, a few stretches under NHDP-III have been offered to developers.

The government offered contracts for only 278 km of highways up to October 2007 against the target of awarding 3,278 km under NHDP-III in 2007-08. Even for NHDP-II projects, consultants could not be appointed.

The government is, however, taking steps to bring all NHDP projects on track, an official said. The department of road transport and highways (DoRTH) has prepared a manual for four- and six-laning of highways and it would be finalised soon in consultation with the Planning Commission, he said. He attributed the delays in highway projects to slow progress in land acquisition and hurdles in getting environment clearances.

The department has identified 5,000 km of additional stretches to be upgraded on BOT basis under NHDP. The department would soon send the upgradation proposal to the Cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) for approval.

DoRTH would also put 5,370 km more under NHDP-III and 1,760 km under NHDP-V for the approval of the public private partnership appraisal committee (PPPAC) by the end of the fiscal. On the proposed expressway between Noida and Ballia, the department would send its comments to the Planning Commission by the end of this month.

The government had earlier launched initiatives to upgrade and strengthen the national highways under various phases of NHDP. Over the next 4-5 years, these projects are estimated to cost around $40 billion.

Meanwhile, the government is setting up the directorate of road safety and traffic regulation. “Based on the recommendations of the Sundar committee, we would send the policy to the Cabinet for its approval. It should be finalised before the forthcoming Budget,” road transport and highways secretary Brahma Dutt said last week.

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Expressway project passed to Centre

December 15, 2007

BANGALORE: The Centre may now come to the rescue of state government on the proposed expressway to the international airport. A decision to hand over the project to the National Highways Authority of India to speed it up was taken by

BMRDA, PWD and BBMP officials at a review meeting on Friday.

National Highway 7 (Bellary Road) will be the only road access to the new airport. The access-controlled 21.2-km expressway will not be ready before Dec. 2009.

The state government will send a request to the Union government to fund the project entirely by entrusting it to NHAI. Earlier, the Union government was asked to fund for the project in the form of viability gap funding.

“Objections to the alignment have been invited. A major objection filed by property owners is to denotify their properties. However, public properties have to be acquired for the project. The applications are being scrutinised,” officials who participated in the meeting told The Times of India. Another request to the Centre will be to develop one of the ring roads — STRR, IRR, PRR and to realign, develop NH 207 to connect Bantwal in Mangalore to Tamil Nadu via Kolar which would act as an East-West corridor of the state.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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