The Hindu Business Line : Shirady Ghat section to be traffic worthy by April: Muniyappa

Mangalore, Feb. 4 The roads on the Shirady Ghat section of National Highway No. 48 will be made traffic worthy by April-end, according to the Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr K.H. Muniyappa.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, he said that Rs 46.42 crore has been sanctioned for the repair of roads on Shirady Ghat section of National Highway No. 48.

Though the scheduled completion period of this stretch is May 2009, efforts are being made to complete the work substantially by April 30, 2008, before the onset of monsoon.

“The roads would be completely in traffic worthy condition by April 30, 2008,” he said.

NH No. 48 starts in Bangalore and terminates in Mangalore.

PORT CONNECTIVITY

Work on four-lane conversion of 37.5-km stretch of National Highway between Surathkal and B.C. Road Junction, under the Port Connectivity Programme, is in progress. Nearly 75 per cent of the work on the construction of pillars for flyovers and bridges on the stretch has been completed.

He hoped that the road between Surathkal and Mangalore will be ready for traffic before the onset of monsoon. Compensation will be given soon to those who lose land for the road widening work between Mangalore to B.C. Road Junction under the programme, he said.

NHDP

Mr Muniyappa said that the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is being implemented in seven phases in the country with an estimated investment of Rs 2.27 lakh crore over the period of 2005-12.

The Golden Quadrilateral for four to six laning of national highways connecting four major cities of the country is almost complete.

Work of the construction of 7,300 km of north-south and east-west corridors has been awarded for most of the stretches. These works are likely to be completed by 2009.

He said that the Central Government has approved to upgrade 12,230 km of national highways under NHDP III on BOT basis.

It is proposed to upgrade another 20,000 km of national highway – which do not qualify for four-lane conversion – into two-lane highways under NHDP IV.

Under NHDP phase , another 6,500 km of NH will be converted into six-lane highway by 2012 at an estimated cost of Rs 41,000 crore.

The Government also plans to construct 1,000 km of expressways under the sixth phase of NHDP at a cost of Rs 16,680 crore, he added.

Earlier in the day, Mr Muniyappa inspected the four-lane conversion work between Surathkal and Mangalore.