Plan panel questions four-laning of some national highway sections

December 12, 2011

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NEW DELHI: The Planning Commission has kicked off a fresh debate, questioning how National Highways Authority of India ( NHAI) has gone ahead with four-laning of national highways even when the daily traffic volume on these stretches did not qualify them to be widened beyond two lanes.

In a recent letter to highways minister C P Joshi, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia raised questions on five projects, including the 70-km Lucknow-Rai Bareli section. Ahluwalia said there were standards – daily traffic volume – set by the Indian Road Congress (IRC) for considering widening of roads to two lanes, four lanes and six lanes. The letter said these standards were bypassed to push certain projects for four-laning under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

Moreover, Ahluwalia mentioned that such a move could have adverse bearing on the finances available for the highway development programme in the country since the allocated budget could get exhausted in less number of projects.

The letter came despite the recent experience of how government had to start six-laning of the Golden Quadrilateral project only 6-7 years after its construction because of the high increase in traffic. “We will always compare our infrastructure development with China to push the need to go on overdrive, but we are caught in issues like this. We have seen how four-lane roads built in the past 10 years are becoming inadequate to handle huge traffic. Are we building roads for the next five years or for decades,” asked a senior ministry official.

Engineers working with IRC said it was not mandatory for the government to follow the recommendations set by the professional body. “But we can see how the Planning Commission uses our recommendation as per its convenience. It has downplayed the views of IRC so far as making safe roads are concerned,” said a senior retired engineer from the ministry who is associated with IRC.

In fact, Ahluwalia reiterated the views of his colleagues in the plan panel on such issues. In his letter to Joshi, he wrote that all highways should be at grid (surface) level without any flyover. Besides, he said there was no need to construct service roads all along the highways in rural areas, though accidents are on the rise in these areas. His juniors have been raising these issues, which have been termed impractical and compromises safety aspects.

A source in IRC said they had told the government that it could “downsize” the plan if it did no have “enough funds” rather than build unsafe roads and those which don’t meet operational needs. “Here, the Planning Commission does not find the merit of IRC’s recommendations,” a senior IRC member said.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com