780 km Bihar highways to be four-laned

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved four-laning of 780 km of national highways in Bihar under the National Highway Development Programme's (NHDP) Phase III A. This is over the stretches (4,035 km in all), earlier approved for four-laning.

However, the clearance has been given on the condition that the procedure for obtaining clearances from the Public-Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) will be followed. With this, the total length of national highways to be upgraded under NHDP-III A would go up to 4,815 km.

The upgrade of 780 km of national highways in Bihar would be done at a cost of Rs 6,782 crore on a BOT (built, operate and transfer) basis. For the entire Phase III (including parts A and B totalling 11,113 km), the CCEA also approved the inclusion of 996 km of national highways. The total length of national highways to be upgraded under Phase III of the NHDP would now be 12,109 km.

While 4,815 km of national highways are to be four-laned under Phase- III A, the remaining 7,294 km are to be covered under Phase-III B. The CCEA also approved the upgrade of the 7,294 km on a BOT basis at a cost of Rs 47,557 crore.

Further, the CCEA approved four-lane connectivity to the international container transshipment terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam in Cochin. The cost of the project is Rs 557 crore.

The project will be been undertaken according to the commitment given to the licensee of the terminal. The project will be implemented by the NHAI and is to be completed, beginning later this month, within 30 months.

The CCEA also approved awarding three sub-projects for four-laning of the Khalghat-Madhya Pradesh/Maharashtra border section of NH-3 (totalling 82.8 km), Hazaribagh-Ranchi section of NH-33 (total 71.16 km) and Rohtak-Hissar section of NH-10 (total 89.36 km).

The projected cost, excluding land acquisition, amounts to Rs 549 crore and Rs 543 crore, respectively.