Regional Editors
Conference 2016
Speaking to senior journalists
during the Regional Editor’s Conference in Chennai today the Chairman, National
Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Shri Raghav Chandra said that the goal of the
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is to create and maintain a countrywide
network of road infrastructure that is mechanically strong, designed to ensure
safety for commuters and is compatible with the requirements of efficient and
sustainable development. With regard to Projects Awarded and Completed during
2014-15 and 2015-16 he gave the broad achievements mentioned below:
|
|
2014-15
|
2015-16
|
|
Total
length of roads awarded
|
7566km
|
10,000
km
|
|
Total
length of roads constructed
|
4410
km
|
6029
km
|
While informing the gathering on a major initiative
like Bharatmala he said this project aims to build national highways to connect
coastal and border areas including small ports, backward areas, religious
places, tourist places, improve connectivity to Char Dham and connect all
district headquarters to national highways.
Shri Chandra
told the gathering how another major initiative , the Setu Bharatam , intends
to make road travel safe by constructing Railway Over Bridges (ROB) or Railway
Under Bridges (RUB) at all 208 level crossings in the country. The aim is to
make national highways free of railway level crossings by 2019. This is being
done to prevent the frequent accidents and loss of lives at level crossings.
They will be built at a cost of Rs. 20,800 crore .
He also informed
that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved development of 1120 kms
of national highways in the States of Karnataka, Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan and
West Bengal. The work for development to two lane standards is under Phase-I of
the National Highway Interconnectivity Improvement Project (NHIIP) with World
Bank assistance. The estimated cost is Rs. 6461 crore.
The
Chairman said the government has approved a plan for constructing 1000 km of
expressways along high density corridors like the Vadodara-Mumbai corridor and
Delhi-Meerut corridor. The approved expressways on high density corridors are
Delhi-Meerut (66 km.), Eastern Peripheral Expressway – 135 km long Greenfield
Expressway from Palwal in Haryana to Kundali via Dasna and the 135 km long
Western Peripheral Expressway which is being executed by Government of Haryana.
He informed that the Ministry has fixed a 2.5 times increase in the
target for award and construction of national highways for 2016-17. The
ministry has set a target of 25,000 km of national highways to be awarded in
2016-17 as against the 10,000 km awarded in 2015-16. The construction target
has been set at 15,000 km as against the 6000 km constructed last year. Of the
total length of national highways targeted for award, 15,000 km would fall
under the target of NHAI and 10,000 km under the target of the Ministry and
National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL). NHAI’s
target for construction has been fixed at 8000 km while for the Ministry and
NHIDCL, the target is 7000 km.
Shri
Chandra informed the gathering , the speeding up of road projects has been made
possible due to several policy interventions which include the freedom to
decide Mode of delivery whether PPP or EPC , Ministry is authorized to appraise
projects up to Rs.1000 crores in place of earlier Rs. 500 crores ,Enhanced
inter-ministerial coordination ,Exit Policy for contractors, Revival of
Languishing projects , Promoting innovative project implementation models like
Hybrid Annuity Model,Amendments to the Model Concession Agreement (MCA) for BOT
Projects , Segregation of Civil Cost from capital Cost for NH projects for
appraisal & approval , Rationalised compensation to concessionaires for
languishing NH projects in BOT mode for delays not attributable to
concessionaires .
Talking about road safety the Chairman said that the government plans to reduce
fatality due to road accidents by 50% by 2020. Several initiatives have been
taken for this:
- A National Road Safety Policy has been approved
- The government has constituted the National
Road Safety Council as the apex body to take policy decisions in the
matter of road safety.
- The Ministry constituted Group of Ministers
from eight states to deliberate and propose strategies for reducing road
fatalities.
- The Ministry has introduced the Motor Vehicle
(Amendment) Bill 2016.
- The Ministry has launched a media campaign to
promote road safety.
- NGOs have been sensitized to work on Road
Safety
- Road safety has been made an integral part of
road designing; safety audits are being taken up for selected stretches of
national highways.
- 723 black spots have been identified which ware
accident prone and steps are being taken to rectify engineering defects at
such spots at a cost of Rs. 11,000 crore.
· The
Highway Advisory System was launched on 10th March 2016 as a pilot
project on Delhi-Jaipur highway is a free-to-air information distribution
system that uses radio to make the travelling experience on national highways
safer.
- Ministry has sanctioned 25 Institutes of
Driver Training and Research and 15 Inspection and Certification Centers
.Vehicle Inspection Centre at Nashik (Maharashtra) started operation from
Oct. 15 and more than 15000 vehicles have been tested so far.
- Good Samaritans
Guidelines: Guidelines dated 12th
May 2015 have been issued by the Ministry to prevent the harassment of
“Good Samaritans” who help road accident victims. Hon’ble Supreme Court
has accepted these guidelines and has asked States for implementation.
******
UM/NP/MS
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