Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Dec 23, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Dec 23, 2004 |
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Logistics
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Roadways ADB clears $400-m loan for North-South corridor Our Bureau
New Delhi , Dec. 22 THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday approved a $ 400-million loan for upgrading key sections of the North-South corridor to boost transport efficiency and expand economic opportunities. The project will upgrade and increase the capacity of 566 km of national arterial roads along the North-South corridor, to enable the road network to meet the growing traffic demand for up to 20 years. It will cover 313 km of National Highway 26, from Lalitpur to Lakhnadon, and 253 km of National Highway 7, between Kurnool and the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border. The project will also help improve the efficiency of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) by strengthening project management and updating the standards and the code of practice for the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of highways. The ADB loan, which covers about 60 per cent of the project's total cost of $670.6 million, comes from its ordinary capital resources. It carries a 25-year term, including a grace period of five years with the interest rate linked to ADB's LIBOR-based lending facility. The Government will contribute $270.6 million toward the total project cost. NHAI is the executing agency for this project, which is due for completion by the end of June 2008. The 4,000-km North-South corridor is part of the ambitious highway development programme christened the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) being implemented by the Government to be completed by December 2007. The NHDP also comprise the 6,000-km Golden Quadrilateral and the 3,300-km East-West corridor. The ADB has supported the NHDP since 2000 with a series of loans totalling $1.54 billion, to cover 12 per cent of the total cost of the NHDP. The loans are being processed at the rate of one project per year, with this project the fifth in the series, supporting the last stage of the NHAI institutional strengthening programme. "The project will shorten travel routes, reduce the risk of road accidents, and remove delays and hold-ups at railway crossings and major road intersections. Overall, it will help provide efficient transport that will contribute to economic growth," says Sri Widowati, an ADB Senior Project Specialist. A programme of this magnitude requires broad-based policy actions, from building project implementation capacity, increasing private sector participation, to improving operation and maintenance, to ensure good project implementation and sustainability. Thus, enhancing NHAI's efficiency is a key challenge. To improve road safety, a pilot 200 km road safety zone along the North-South corridor will be equipped with advanced monitoring equipment for speeding and overloading, ambulances, and other relief equipment for emergency road services. To reduce the risks of spreading HIV/AIDS and deter human trafficking along the project highway, the project will conduct public awareness campaigns among vulnerable groups.
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