Chapter: Gist of Press Information Bureau Articles

Topic: Road to Connectivity

Q. Give the data of Indian road network?

• Indian road network is the second highest with 42.36 lakh km of length.
• It comprises70,934 km National Highways, 1,54,522 km of State Highways, 25,77,396 km of Major District Roads and other District Roads & 14,33,577 km of rural roads .

Q. What are the initiatives have been taken by the Government to upgrade and strengthen National Highways/ NHDP?

The Government of India has launched major initiatives to upgrade and strengthen National Highways through various phases of National Highways Development project (NHDP) Phase-I to Phase-VII which are briefly as under:

Phase I

NHDP Phase I approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in December 2000 comprises mostly of GQ (5,846 km) and NS-EW Corridor (981km), port connectivity (356 km) and others (315 km). Under Golden Quadrilateral only 19 km remain to be completed.

Phase II

Approved in December 2003 comprises mostly NS-EW Corridor (6,161 km) and other National Highways of 486 km length, the total length being 6,647 km. The total length of Phase II is 6,647 km. Phase-II is targeted for completion by December 2011. 5733 km (80.2 %) of NS- EW corridor is completed till June 2011.

Phase III

It consists of upgradation and 4 laning of 12190 km of National Highways. Construction of2351 km under NHDP-Phase-III is completed till June 2011. The target for NHDP Phase-III for completion is December 2013.

Phase IV

Under this 20000 km planned to be constructed as 2 - laning with paved shoulders. Out of this, the Government has approved in July, 2008 the proposal upgradation/ strengthening of 5,000 km of single/intermediate/two lane NHs to 2-lane standards with paved shoulders under NHDP Phase-IVA on BOT (Toll) and BOT (Annuity) basis at an estimated cost of Rs. 6,950 crore.

Phase V

It comprises six laning of 6,500 km includes 5,700 km of GQ and other (800 km) stretches on Design Build Finance and operation (DBFO) basis. Phase-V is targeted for completion by December 2012. 619 km of six laning is completed under NHDP-Phase-V till June 2011.

Phase VI

The Government has approved construction of 1000 km of Expressway under NHDP Phase- VI at a cost of Rs. 16,680 crore on DBFO basis. NHDP Phase-VI is targeted for completion by December, 2015.

Phase-VII

It includes construction of 700 km of ring roads/bypasses and flyovers and selected stretches. NHDP Phase-VII is targeted for completion by December, 2014.

Q. What are the initiatives taken by the Government to connect the Ports?

The NHDP inter alia includes port connectivity projects for improvement of roads connecting 12 major Ports in the country. Programme for connectivity to Major Ports was approved in December, 2000 for 393 km (connectivity to Kandla for 56 km on NH-8 was on-going. Hence, total length is 449 km).

Most of the major ports in the country were likely to be connected by four lane connectivity projects.

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