Work on Golden Quadrilateral to kick off in Saurashtra soon

Work on the construction of the 153 km stretch of the national highway in Saurashtra, from Rajkot to Porbandar, will be taken up soon.

This is part of the 24,000 km long highway planned as part of the Prime Minister's Golden Quadrilateral project. Land acquisition for this international-standard highway has been completed, M B Bajulge, project director of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

Speaking about financial input for Rajkot- Porbandar highway project, Bajulge said a proposal for a loan has already been submitted to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The cost of this 153 km long, 35 metre wide project has been estimated at Rs 735 crore and the work will start soon. A total of 28 tunnels and one overbridge will be build as part of the project. Tenders have been floated for the project for Indian and foreign participation.

All the illegal buildings on this proposed road site will be removed shortly. The project affected people will be resettled on a 5 hectare land at Kotharia near Rajkot, Bajulge added.

Besides the land acquisition in Rajkot and Porbandar, the highway authority has paid the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) a sum of Rs 5 crore towards the removal of electric poles creating obstructions and also paid Rs 12 crore to the forest division.

The national highway will have a spread right from the eastern borders of the country in Silchar (Assam) to Porbandar in Gujarat, at the far western sea coast. In Saurashtra, besides Rajkot and Porbandar, Bamanbor and Samakhiyali, have been included in the highway project.

Under this gigantic project, a grade separator will be built at Bamanbor which will allow vehicles coming from Kandla and Ahmedabad to pass through the road underneath the overbridge and vehicles coming and going from Rajkot will pass through the overbridge, resulting in a speedy and safe traffic clearance.

Bamanbor will be a junction point to connect the road coming from the Kutch region. The highway form Bamanbor up to Samakhiyali and Gagodar (Kutch) will cost Rs 710 crore, Bajulge informed.

The full paving work of highway from Rajkot to Gondal has been completed and for the rest, the pace of work will be stepped up for creating parking roads, service roads and approach roads.

The project will be completed within 33 months after its commencement. The proposed highway will give a major boost to development of Saurashtra, especially the cement and soda ash industries besides other industrial establishments in the region.