India’s two major highway projects — Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) and Ganga Expressway Project (GEP) — will not compete, but complement each other in the process of development.
“Earlier, there was a belief that GEP would rival GQ. However, after the Uttar Pradesh government submitted its reports to the Planning Commission, the Centre is fully satisfied and has already given GEP a green signal,” Union Surface Transport Secretary Brahma Dutt told the media here last evening.
While, GQ is being developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and is nearing completion, GEP is the flagship project of the state government.
GEP, estimated to cost Rs 30,000 crore, was awarded to Jaypee Group last year after bidding. The process of land acquisition for the 1,047 projects has already started after some delay. GQ is India’s largest expressway project and consists of developing roughly 5,800 km of expressways connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — forming a quadrilateral at a cost of Rs 60,000 crore. GQ will have a total length of about 754 km in UP.
Meanwhile, the Centre has promised more funds for the development of highways in UP. Out of the total accrual of Rs 1,008 crore for UP under Central Road Fund (CRF), the central government has already released Rs 861 crore.
“If UP needs more funds, we will release more funds as the state has shown remarkable progress in this sector over the last two yrs,” Dutt said.
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CRF is a dedicated fund created by the centre and is distributed among states for development and maintenance of highways, state roads, rural roads and for provision of bridges.
A Rs 2 per litre cess from the sale of petrol and diesel goes to CRF. Dutt was in town to review the progress of highway projects and utilisation of central funds.
The union secretary said the process of land acquisition was facing minor problems at some places, but on average it accounted for 5-7 per cent of the total length of projects. “The delays in highway projects cause cost over-runs of about 15-20 per cent to NHAI,” he informed.