Question : Development of Expressway

(a) whether the Government has envisaged development of expressways under Phase-VI of the National Highways Development Project;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the States/corridors covered under the project;

(c) whether the expressways constructed recently have not been able to address the issue of traffic congestion at toll plazas and if so, the reasons therefor;

(d) whether the Government is contemplating any scheme for construction of these expressways of international standards; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the timeframe fixed for completion of the said expressway projects?

THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS

(SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)

(a) to (e): Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 366 FOR ANSWER ON 11TH AUGUST, 2016 ASKED BY SHRI JANARDAN SINGH SIGRIWAL AND SHRI ABHISHEK SINGH REGARDING DEVELOPMENT OF EXPRESSWAY


(a) Yes Madam.

(b) Govt. of India has approved a plan for constructing 1000 km of Expressways under NHDP Phase-VI at a cost of Rs.16,680cr on DBFOT basis. The main criteria for selection of Expressway corridors will be the traffic volume and it was approved that the highest density corridor i.e. Vadodara-Mumbai Corridor (400 km) was given top priority and considered for feasibility study. It was also decided that remaining 600 km will be selected out of the routes identified on the basis of traffic volume. The high density corridors approved under NHDP Phase-VI are (i) Vadodara-Mumbai Corridor (400 km) in Gujarat and Maharashtra, (ii) Delhi-Meerut (66 km) on NH-58 in Delhi/UP, (iii) Bangalore-Chennai (334 km) on NH-4 in Karnataka/Tamil Nadu, (iv) Delhi-Jaipur (261 km) on NH-8 in Delhi/Rajasthan, (v) Delhi-Chandigarh (249 km) on NH-1 and NH-22, (now changed to Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar-Katra Expressway) in Delhi/Punjab/J&K, (vi) Kolkata-Dhanbad (277 km) on NH-2 in West Bengal/Jharkhand and (vii) Delhi-Agra (200 km) on NH-2 in Delhi/UP.

Out of 66 Km length of Delhi-Meerut expressway, 30.63 Km length has already been awarded in 2 packages and contract agreement is executed on 4.3.2016. Bid for one package of 19.284 Km length has been received and are under evaluation. Feasibility study of remaining length is under progress.

In addition to above, Government has approved to take up one more expressway namely Eastern Peripheral expressway for a length of 135 Km in 6 packages. The construction on Eastern Peripheral Expressway has been started w.e.f 14.09.2015 (Appointed Date) with construction period of 30 months.

(c) No Madam.

(d)&(e) Yes Madam. The construction on Eastern Peripheral Expressway has been started w.e.f 14.09.2015 (Appointed Date) with construction period of 30 months. The construction of 30.63 Km length of Delhi-Meerut expressway (two packages) will be started after declaration of Appointed date. Completion date of remaining expressways could not be indicated since feasibility study is under progress as of now.

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