In an attempt to get ahead of the previous government's showpiece highway programme, the United Progressive Alliance government on Thursday gave the go-ahead to upgrade the entire Golden Quadrilateral stretch from four to six lanes.
Apart from this, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also gave its approval for starting work on the fifth phase of the National Highway Development Programme. The two projects will involve laying around 6,500 km of highway and cost around Rs 41,210 crore.
A major share of the investment -- as much as Rs 35,692 crore -- is expected to come from the private sector, with the government pitching in with viability gap funding at 10 per cent, significantly lesser than the 40 per cent that used to be the norm earlier. The viability gap funding this time around will work out only to around Rs 5,518 crore.
Although the National Highways Authority of India has awarded several build-operate-transfer projects in the past, the number of such projects is expected to shoot up significantly.
According to officials, land acquisition, a perennial problem in the road sector, will not be a problem while upgrading the Golden Quadrilateral.
Significantly, the cost per km of the fifth National Highway Development Programme projects is estimated to be marginally higher than the Golden Quadrilateral at around Rs 6.34 crore, of which Rs 5.78 crore will be required for road construction and Rs 0.56 crore for land acquisition, utilities and consultancy fees.
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