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The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T. R. Baalu has said that we have to evolve efficient and innovative methods for operation and maintenance to maintain high speed road corridors and to provide a high level of service to the road users. Addressing a Seminar on “High Speed Road Corridors” organised by the Indian Road Congress here today, the Minister said that huge funds are required for this purpose as the National Highway projects are highly capital intensive and the cess accruals from petrol and diesel are not enough to meet the requirements.
Thiru Baalu said that though the Government has decided to involve private sector in the development, operation and maintenance of most of the projects of upgradation of National Highways to be taken up in the near future, all the projects may not be viable for investment by the private sector and therefore we need to find innovative methods for financing the programmes.
He informed the participants that a development programme for the National Highways for the next seven years (2005-2012) has been prepared by the Government which envisages an investment of Rs. 1,72,000 crore. This includes NHDP Phase-III for 4/6 laning of 10,000 kms of National Highways primarily on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis with the help of private participation, NHDP Phase-IV for widening to two-lanes of 20,000 kms, NHDP Phase-V for six-laning of 5,000 kms, NHDP Phase-VI for development of 1,000 kms of Expressways, NHDP Phase-VII for removal of bottlenecks like construction of bypasses, bridges etc., on National Highways.
The Minister said that a separate proposal for the development of National Highways and State Roads of the North-Eastern Region of the country has also been approved by the Government under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme. The Programme envisages improvement of selected road lengths of 7,639 kms in the North-Eastern Region at an estimated cost of Rs.12,123 crore.
Thiru Baalu expressed satisfaction over the implementation of number of mega projects under the NHDP Phase-I which include four-lane connectivity to the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. He said work on 4,976 kms out of a total length of 5,846 kms of NHDP Phase-I has been completed upto August 2005 and works on the remaining length are targeted for substantial completion by the end of this year.
Referring to the Safety aspects, the Minister said that the safety provisions are integral part of the road projects at the planning and design stage of the NHDP projects as the high speed traffic on road would aggravate the problem of accidents if proper safety arrangements are not made. He said, the engineering measures along with education and awareness of the road users regarding safe practices on road and enforcement of the safety-related provisions, are imperative to manage the modernization of road network and growth of vehicular traffic.
In his Welcome address, the Secretary General of Indian Roads Congress Shri R.S. Sharma hoped that the Seminar would provide an opportunity to the highway professionals to share their views and experiences on the requirements of high-speed road corridors. The recommendations emerging out of the Seminar may be useful in identifying the issues of finance and risk management, especially by the private sector in implementing such projects on BOT basis, he said.
The two-day Seminar would cover three broad Themes namely, Planning and Design, Operation and Maintenance, and Financing and risk Management. Eminent experts from India and abroad would be making presentations during the Theme Sessions. The case studies of the important projects would also be presented during the Seminar.
VBA/BS
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