Speedy Completion of National Highway Projects,
Government Firm on Speedy Completion of NH
Projects
The Minister of State for Road Transport and
Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and National Highways Authority of
India (NHAI) have taken a number of steps for speedy completion of National
Highways projects including streamlining of the process of land acquisition and
other statutory clearances, harmonious substitution of Concessionaire,
re-schedulement of Premium quoted by concessionaires, getting Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) to treat road sector loans as secured, introduction of revamped
dispute resolution mechanism and close coordination with other ministries etc.
Considering the current market conditions, particularly with reference to the
highway sector, focus of the Government is on implementation of highways
through public funded EPC mode.
Once, the highways sector gathers momentum
through execution of the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) projects
and current issues plaguing Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) mode are well-addressed,
the focus on BOT (Toll) mode would be restored in order to effectively take
highways sector forward.
-------------
Government Plans to Mandate Test Norms for
Passenger Cars
The Minister of State for Road Transport and
Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the
Government is planning to mandate the offset frontal crash test and side impact
crash test norms for passenger cars. For this requisite test, facilities are
being built under National Automotive Testing and Research and Development
Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) initiative. Once these facilities are ready,
the regulations will be implemented. To meet these regulations, majority of car
manufacturers will require to use several safety devices, including air bags.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures
(SIAM) are the members of the Standing Committee on the Central Motor Vehicles
Rules, which decides the implementation issues. Automobile manufacturers
provide their viewpoints from time to time in this forum along with other
stakeholders.
-----------
Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram NH to be Widened
to Four-Lane
The Minister of State for Road Transport and
Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the
stretch of NH-47 from Kanyakumari to Thiruvananthapuram via Nagercoil – Kavalkinaru
section of NH-47B is to be widened to four lanes. The Detailed Project Report
has been prepared for implementing the project under two packages, viz. (i)
4-laning of Thiruvananthapuram – Kerala / Tamil Nadu border section of NH-47
for a length of 43.00 Km in the State of Kerala and (ii) 4-laning of Kerala /
Tamil Nadu border – Kanniyakumari section of NH-47 and Nagercoil – Kavalkinaru
section of NH-47B for a total length of 70.36 Km in the State of Tamil Nadu.
The land acquisition for four laning has been taken up. The construction of
four lane road would be taken up after acquisition of required land.
The section from Tirunelvli to
Thiruvananthapuram via Nagercoil is connected with National Highway (NH) -7,
NH-47 and NH-47B. Out of this, the stretch of NH-7 from Tirunelveli to
Kanyakumari has already been converted into four lane carriageway.
--------------
Upgradation of Shivpuri-Dewas Section of
National Highway
The Minister of State for Road Transport and
Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the
upgradation of Shivpuri-Dewas section of the National Highways (NH-3) to
four-lane is targeted to be awarded by March, 2015. It is now proposed on
Design-Build-France-Operate-Transfer basis and the bidding of project (in three
packages) is under process.
The traffic density on Gwalior-Shivpuri-Dewas
section of National Highway (NH) 3 is varying from 15000 Passenger Car Units
(PCU) to 21000 PCU and upgradation work to four lane standard is being taken up
in this stretch. Four-laning of Gwalior-Shivpuri section on
Build-Operate-Transfer (Toll) basis has already commenced with appointed date
of 16.05.2013 and construction period of 2.5 years. Shivpuri-Dewas section was
earlier awarded on 12.01.2012. However, the project was terminated by National
Highways Authority of India on 07.05.2014 due to non-achievement of financial
closure by the concessionaire.
-----------
Shri Nitin Gadkari Invites Financial
Institutions to Invest in Infrastructure Projects
The Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways
& Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari today invited financial institutions, both
domestic as well global to invest in India’s infrastructure projects including
highways and inland waterways. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the
4th international summit on “Infrastructure Finance-Building for Growth”
organized by ASSOCHM here. Shri Gadkari outlined the Modi Government’s focus on
promoting world class infrastructure as a part of India’s growth strategy and called
upon all the stakeholders to join in this endeavour for making the country a
global power. He promised the private investors that the Government would make
their investments in infrastructure projects as a force multiplier by
strengthening policy frameworks wherever necessary.
The Minister asserted that the NDA government,
under the leadership of Premier Modi, is committed to making India a social
welfare state striking a perfect balance between progress and development.
Environment preservation and socio-economic emancipation of all underprivileged
sections of the society by creating jobs are high on the agenda of the
Government, he added.
Shri Gadkari listed several initiatives taken by
his ministries in the highways and shipping sectors including e-tolling, goods
transport in river Ganga from Varanasi to Haldia and resumption of several
stalled national highway projects in different parts of the country. Other
initiatives included a new Road Transport & Safety Bill 2014, a national
permit policy for goods transport across the country, a computerized driving
license system, highway safety projects, cashless treatment of road accident
victims, preference to concrete roads and sea-plane service in Mumbai.
Post a Comment