Road trips take a toll on drivers

Koride Mahesh, TNN |

9,400 free passes issued in six months at Pimpalgaon toll plaza

NASHIK: The number of motorists who have taken a free pass through the Pimpalgaon toll plaza (around 30 km from Nashik city) on the widened 60-km stretch on the Mumbai-Agra national highway, has gone beyond 9,400 over the past six months.

The Pimpalgaon-Nashik-Gonde (PNG) Tollways, responsible for widening the highway, had expected only about 4,000 vehicles to take free rides through the toll plaza.

Officials of PNG Tollways said they have already issued 9,400 free passes and still counting. the process was still underway

They said that Pimplagaon was probably the only toll plaza in the state, or even the entire country, where such a large number of people had availed of the free passes.

The motorists who have availed free passes include owners of cars and light commercial vehicles like pick-up vans and other vehicles used for transporting agri produce. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles that have availed of the concessional passes is only 600.

The PNG Tollways, which undertook the work of road widening of the Pimpalgaon-Gonde stretch in October 2010, tried to start the toll-collection process in October 2012, on completion of 75% of the work. However, the political leaders and farmers of the Pimpalgaon area stalled the collection on various occasions, bringing up new issues every single time.

Initially, the agitators demanded full completion of the road work before the commencement of toll collection, followed by a claim for complete waiver of toll fee for residents within 20 km of the toll plaza. The agitators then demanded complete waiver for all taxis and vehicles of the state carrying agriculture produce.

Taking into account the frequent objections to the toll collections, the construction company cancelled the Rs 200 fee for motorists residing within the radius of 20 km of the toll plaza, followed by slashing of 75% of the fees for taxis and 50% for trucks registered within 20 km radius of the toll plaza.

However, the political leaders and other activists yet again stalled the toll collection on January 9. On the same day, the PNG lodged complaints against 200 agitators even as it gave in to their demands and once again stalled the process of toll collection.

Subsequently, in a meeting called by district guardian minister Chhagan Bhujbal, it was decided that the toll company would commence its operations, while the responsibility of providing security would rest with the district administration.

The toll collection thus resumed on January 22, in the midst of a thick bandobast provided by the rural police initially. Meanwhile, since the work of the flyover in Nashik is also over and will be thrown open to traffic anytime now, the PNG is likely to increase the toll fees by 60%. The staff, however, fears another agitation in the offing with the rise in the toll prices.

NHAI rules out additional structures on highway

Santosh Sonawane, TNN |

NASHIK: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has made it clear that new work on the stretch can be undertaken only during the operation and maintenance period as the project cost has exceeded its limit.
With freak accidents becoming frequent over the widened Mumbai-Agra national highway passing through the city, both commuters and residents along the highway come up with new demands in respect to the inconveniences faced by them.

At a recent review meeting conducted by district guardian minister Chhagan Bhujbal following the death of a youth died in an accident near the Indiranagar underpass, traffic police officials pointed out the necessity of underpasses in the K K Wagh College, B D Kamgar Nagar and Jatra Hotel areas. They also raised demands for facilities such as traffic signals, speed-breakers, cat eye reflectors and signboards to stop accidents in the future.

According to NHAI officials, the project has already exceeded the five per cent additional cost kept reserved for unplanned work done under the change of scope of a particular project. They made it clear that any additional work on the 60-km stretch, which includes a 5.7 km flyover, can only be undertaken during the operation and maintenance period.

The 60 km stretch from Gonde to Pimpalgaon has become “a rollercoaster ride”, with five flyovers from the city – the 5.71 km elevated corridor, the flyovers at Adgaon, Lekha Nagar, Pathardi Phata and Garware point, apart from two others outside the city near Ojhar, said NHAI officials.

Further, underpasses have been built at Indiranagar, Rane Nagar, Phalke Smarak, Vilholi, Raigad Nagar, Vadivarhe, Chinchkhed, Umbarkhed, Saykheda and Ojhar. These projects, along with the additional structures under the change of scope works, leave little chance for any new construction.

Sources from PNG Tollways said that underpasses at Chichkhed, Umbarkhed, Ojhar, Indiranagar, Vadivarhe and Vilholi have been taken up under the change of scope works.

While the issues of Vadi Varhe and Vilholi have been resolved and the Indiranagar underpass already done, Ojhar residents are also demanding a flyover, dissatisfied with twin underpasses. Similarly, residents of Pimpalgaon are also demanding a flyover at Chinchkhed, instead of an underpass. There have been protests at Ojhar and Pimpalgoan to emphasise these demands.

Source_http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Vinci Construction in talks to acquire Indian road concessions

France’s Vinci says looking at looking at acquiring the concessions of those developers who are looking to exit

e-tags to debut on highway from Ahmedabad to Mumbai MAMUNI DAS

More road projects via EPC on cards

In a bid to provide much-needed impetus to the fund-starved highways sector, the road transport ministry is looking at increasing road projects to be awarded through Engineering Procurement Contract (EPC).

For the current fiscal, the target is to award around 4,000 km of road projects.

“We have to meet our target of awarding 9,500 km of road projects during the current fiscal. If the projects do not find takers on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, we may award them on EPC, as funding them is not a problem for us,” said a top road transport ministry official, who did not want to be identified.

The official further said that there is a fund crunch for road projects in the market, as the banks have exhausted their quota for loans for road projects.

“Lot of companies, who got projects last year, are also in the process of achieving financial closure and may not be interested in our projects on offer on PPP mode,” he added.

Two PPP modes on which the projects are awarded, include Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)-toll and BOT-annuity.

The third mode is EPC, where the project is funded by the government and the road developer is obligated to build the highway within the stipulated time.

Currently, the road transport ministry and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have to achieve an award target of 9,500 km of road projects as set by the PMO.

NHAI, however, feels that awarding projects on EPC will take time and awarding projects in time, and not money, may become a problem.

SOURCE: http://www.indianexpress.comn

Highway construction goes into top gear

NHAI hastens award of projects covering 5,400 km this financial year, road construction increases to 7 km a day
The pace of road construction in the first three years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s second term has increased to seven km a day, compared with 4.1 km a day in the previous three years. However, this is still below the ambitious 20-km a day target set by the government.

Officials said so far, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded projects covering about 5,400 km in this financial year, against a target of awarding 59 projects covering 7,300 km, with a total cost of about Rs 60,000 crore. The authority is expected to hasten the award of projects in the next few days to come as close to the target as possible

In the last three years of UPA’s first term — 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 — NHAI constructed 4,522 km of highways. This increased to 7,758 km in the first three years of the current term.
At about 2,100 km, 2011-12 would see the lowest national highway construction in the last four financial years. A senior NHAI official said, “We will be able to construct 2,100 km of roads this year. This year’s construction is low because of less number of awards in 2008-09. Our award plans went haywire in 2008-09 because of the recession in the global market.” He added the completion of projects by the authority was below the target of 2,500 km of highways in the current financial year.

The award and construction of road projects had slowed during the first term of the UPA government. While the economic slowdown and the ensuing liquidity crunch had hit performance and kept companies away, T R Baalu’s record as the road transport minister was also not satisfactory.

In mid-2009, UPA came to power for the second time and Kamal Nath was appointed surface transport minister. He had set a target of 20 km a day, increasing it from the target six km a day in 2008-09. During his tenure, Nath had come up with project plans for two financial years and had set a target of awarding a little over 200 projects, worth Rs 200,000 crore. The pace of awarding road projects and construction of roads improved under the new minister, C P Joshi.

The highways authority has also awarded over 21 projects on premium that is expected to fetch around Rs 3,000 crore a year. A company offering a premium shows it is committing to an annual payment to the government over a period of time, instead of seeking a grant for building roads. Companies bid a premium if these are confident the accruing toll revenue would more-than-offset their costs.

The premium income is also set to bring down NHAI’s borrowing. It would now have to borrow only Rs 83,000 crore till 2030-31. The B K Chaturvedi committee, appointed in 2009 to examine the National Highways Development Programme and related aspects (it gave its second report last year), had said NHAI would need to raise Rs 191,000 crore by 2030-31.

If you visit a good Dhaba on Highway

Visualize this : You are cruising along in your car along the wide lanes of a highway, feeling slightly weary from the strain of travel. Suddenly a tantalizingly familiar smell hits your nose as you pass by. You hit the brakes and enter a ramshackle place with plastic chairs arranged around a few half broken tables, with a boy or two running around to do your bidding. Welcome to this place and  this is none other than the Dhaba.

The ‘Dhaba culture’ has enchanted everyone at some point or another. Be it the peace of resting your head on the ‘khatiya’ or the enthusiastic gulping down of ‘chaach’ and of course, beer and chicken and tandoori roti.  Vegetarian do not miss out on the pleasure of a Dhaba either; the paneer and dals fascinate everybody.

The Dhaba tradition began with the intention of helping out truck drivers rest, eat meals and refill their trucks. They served Punjabi food on wooden cots and catered to truck drivers constantly plying outside city limits. Soon this popular habit turned into a tourist attraction. Now, we have students taking road trips to go and eat at that one Dhaba that serves hot parathas on that chilly highway! The food still remains as tasty as ever and yet continues to be inexpensive. Enthralling isn’t it?

Dhabas price their food much cheaper than any other restaurants on the highways. Businesses of the dhabas spike up on weekends and those are the busy days. Business and work is low on all other days. Dhabas are now noticing recurring customers. Such a culture never existed before. Students and families have now become loyal customers and Dhaba owners pride over such visitors.

One of the show Highway on my plate depicts the food culture on highways

Source: http://goodtimes.ndtv.com

punesite.com

Indian Highway Image

Nearly $40 million to be poured into highway projects

HUNTSVILLE — Huntsville and parts of Walker County will see nearly $40 million in highway improvements over the next few years.

The Texas Department of Transportation has several projects in the works that will improve the safety of Huntsville roadways.

Highway 19 construction has been ongoing for months and is running smoothly, according to David Stephens, area engineer for Walker, Madison, Leon and Freestone counties.

“I’m tickled to death,” he said. “These are a lot of necessary projects.”

TxDOT partnered with the city of Huntsville on the Highway 19 project, with the city giving $150,000 for aesthetics and a signal on Highway 75 and Boettcher Drive. That project is expected to cost $15.3 million.

“Highway 19 is going well,” Stephens said. “The dry weather is causing a lot of people grief, but it’s really improving the production for Smith and Co., the contractor.”

Most of the on and off ramps have been roughed in along Highway 19, except for those entrances and exits that have traffic. Most of the beams have been placed for the Bearkat Boulevard bridge and the Highway 75 bridge.

“Bearkat is going to really be nice,” he said. “We worked with the city on it and tried to make some changes on it so it looks a lot nicer. It’s really kind of the main entrance to the college.”

There will be Texas stars integrated into the bridge columns for aesthetic purposes.

“We’re trying to make things prettier,” Stephens said. “There will be an exit ramp like there is now, but there will also be a frontage road that continues past Bearkat.”

Highway 30 underpass

The next major project residents will notice is a change to the Highway 30, FM 1791 intersection. There’s a red light for the FM 1791 portion and a blinking yellow light for Highway 30 travelers. Starting this month, contractors have bid on building an overpass that will be the new FM 1791.

Highway 30 travelers will no longer have to worry about someone pulling out in front of them from the farm-to-market road.

“We should start in the winter, then it’s about a 24-month project,” Stephens said. “It’s going to improve safety a great deal. What we’ll do is have frontage roads on either side that will be about where the existing lanes are. If you’re driving on Highway 30, you won’t have to cross any traffic. You will still have to stop on 1791.”

Stephens said this project was needed for safety reasons, and as such, was awarded through the TxDOT safety program.

“Projects compete statewide for a limited amount of safety money,” he said. “We did have a fatality where someone went through that stop light and hit another car. It’ll be a really big improvement.”

There will be a U-turn lane so anyone needing to go back into town will have that ability.

Interstate 45 Frontage

A contract is set to be awarded this month for frontage road construction along Interstate 45 in Huntsville. This project is expected to cost $8.7 million and will relocate entrance and exits ramps all along I-45 in the city.

Construction will stretch northbound from in front of Charlie’s Used Cars down to exit 118. There will be a new entrance ramp in front of El Chico Mexican Restaurant. The ramp at La Quinta Inn will be an exit ramp as opposed to an entrance ramp. There will be a new entrance ramp past Wiesner of Huntsville. The current exit 118 will be rebuilt further south.

“The whole goal is now that Huntsville has grown, we’re trying to keep as much traffic out of the signals as we can,” Stephens said. “We’ll have entrance ramps before signals and exits after the signals.”

On the southbound ramps, construction will start at FM 1791 and extend to Bob Luby’s Seafood. The frontage road will remain much the same, but will be reconstructed. The southbound exit 118 (south of the interchange of Highway 75), will be rebuilt further south.

“We’re basically going to modernize it so it’s more of a high speed entrance ramp,” Stephens said. “We  will not touch the ramp in front of the Holliday Unit.”

I-45/75/1791 Intersection

A $2.5 million project clustered around the intersection of Highway 75 North, I-45 and FM 1791 will have a major change on traffic backup in the area.

The process is expected to begin in August of 2012. Just after the Texas Department of Public Safety office, there will be a separate U-turn lane that will go between the bridge columns and the abutment on the south side of the existing road.

There will be a connector road for I-45 stretching from just in front of  Kate Barr Ross Park and cutting across Texas Department of Criminal Justice property.

“That’ll be a big improvement there,” Stephens said. “We’ll move the signal near the DPS office up to where 75 is now. We’ll do away with the (cross through street). If you’re wanting to go to the TDCJ BOT complex, you will be able to do that without going through a signal on the west side of the Interstate.”

Stephens said traffic studies were conducted of the area to determine the best way to alleviate traffic during mornings and afternoon rush hour.

“We’re really hopeful that it’ll be a great improvement,” he said. “One of the big things – if you’re going north and you want to go to the BOT, there will be a dual left turn movement. That should improve things a great deal there.”

City Projects

City Manager Bill Baine said the city is looking into ways to connect Spur 59 with FM 1791, creating a cross street that would help travelers heading to the TDCJ BOT complex.

“The idea would be to provide a safe way for local citizens to bypass the head-on truck traffic,” Baine said. “We want to facilitate people commuting to TDCJ headquarters.”

Source: http://itemonline.com

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