Government gave its go-ahead for eight mega national high-speed road corridor projects covering a total length of 936 km with an outlay of Rs 50,655 crore. An official statement said the development is expected to enhance logistics efficiency and nationwide connectivity.
These projects could be set to have an output of approximately 4.42 crore mandays of direct and indirect employment. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given a go-ahead to some of the significant corridors are the 6-Lane Agra-Gwalior National High-Speed Corridor, 4-Lane Kharagpur-Moregram National High-Speed Corridor, and 6-Lane Tharad-Deesa-Mehsana-Ahmedabad National High-Speed Corridor,.
The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, tweeted, "Indian infrastructure gets a transformative boost! Exponentially speed up economic growth to generate employment, with the approval at the level of Cabinet, 8 National Road Corridor Projects of High-Speed at a cost over Rs. 50,000 Crores. #Infrastructure #ModernIndia."
As the press note details, the 88-km Agra-Gwalior National High-Speed Corridor to be developed under the build-operate-transfer model at a total investment of Rs 4,613 crore will double the existing capacity on the Agra-Gwalior segment of the North-South Corridor and improve access to important tourist places both in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. This will reduce the travel distance between Agra and Gwalior by around 7%, and travel time will reduce by around 50% with a significant lowering of logistic costs.
The 231-kilometer Kharagpur-Moregram National High-Speed Corridor shall be built under the Hybrid Annuity Model by an investment of INR 10,247 crores. It will improve the traffic capacity of travel by about five times between Kharagpur and Moregram and improve communication between different states and the northeastern part of the country.
An important aspect of the BOT concept is the Tharad-Deesa-Mehsana-Ahmedabad National High-Speed Corridor, developed at a cost of Rs 10,534 crore for 214 kilometers, that will connect key national corridors across Gujarat. Thereby, transport of freight from major industrial areas of north India to major ports in Maharashtra would be facilitated smoothly.
The Ayodhya Ring Road, 68 km developed, under HAM costing Rs 3,935 crore, would decongest the already existing highways in Ayodhya, thus increasing the accessibility for the pilgrims visiting the Ram Mandir.
Under HAM with a total length of 137 km, the commercial connecting Pathalgaon-Gumla section of Raipur-Ranchi National High-Speed Corridor will cost Rs 4,473 cr., which will enhance the connectivity between mining areas and industrial zones.
"The 47-kilometer Kanpur Ring Road – Engineering, Procurement and Construction at Rs 3,298 crore – will complete the six-lane ring road around Kanpur. The 121-kilometer Northern Guwahati Bypass and improvement of the existing Guwahati Bypass shall be executed in BOT mode at a total cost of Rs 5,729 crore, including the cost of a major bridge on River Brahmaputra.".
The last of it is the 30-km elevated Nashik Phata-Khed Corridor that was built near Pune at a cost of Rs 7,827 crore under the BOT format, further bolstering high-speed connections between Pune and Nashik to also alleviate congestion in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area.
The government is focusing on making corridor-based infrastructure, rather than making any independent project, that would help keep the standards uniform and increase logistic efficiency as part of the journey toward India becoming a USD 30+ trillion economy by 2047.
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