The entire 444 km long road of the Golden Quadrilateral project running through Orissa is targeted to be completed by March 2010.
This was informed by the Union minister of state for shipping, road transport and highways, K.H.Muniyappa in response to the “special mention” made by Rajya Sabha MP from Orissa, Rudra Narayan Pany on “Development of National Highways in Orissa”.
In a letter to Pany, the minister said, so far 337.87km long four -laning road under this scheme has been completed out of total length of 444km in the state.
The project was undertaken by 12 packages out of which eight packages were completed.
The original packages for Balasore-Bhadrak and Sunakala-Ganjam have been terminated due to slow progress of work, he said.
The minister also indicated that a stretch of NH-42 connecting Manguli Chhack to Angul has been identified for fourlaning.
Accordingly provision for feasibility study and preparation of project report for this work has been made in the current annual plan. He ruled out any plan for four laning the highway beyond Angul upto Sambalpur.
The minister in his letter has touched upon all the national highways passing through Orissa.
Referring to the proposed Vijayawada –Ranchi highway, he said, 1219km out of this total 1632km passed through the state.
Out of the 1219km passing through Orissa, the state highway was 980km long while the portion of national highway was 239km.
Again out of 239km long national highway, 175.5km was two-laned and the rest less than two-laned, the letter added.
He said state government had already initiated the process for beginning work on the state highways portion.
The minster said there was no proposal to convert Gopalpur- Banarpal road into a national highway and it was a state highway.
As regards to NH200 connecting Duburu to Pitiri Chhack, through Chhandikhole to Talcher, the minister said this section of NH200 would be four-laned by the National Highway Authority of India(NHAI) in public-private partnership mode.
The minister hinted about the status of work going on Baragada-Boriguma section of NH201, Khurda-Balangir section of NH 224, Panikoili-Rajamunda section of NH-225 and Banarpal-Rajamunda –Biramitrapur road of NH23.
