Cabinet approves 8 high-speed road corridors worth Rs 50655 crore

Cabinet approves 8 high-speed road corridors worth Rs 50655 crore

Subject: Geo

Sec: Eco geo

Context:

The Cabinet approved eight National High-Speed Road Corridor Projects of 936 km length at a total cost of Rs 50,655 crore. The projects are expected to improve logistics efficiency, reduce congestion, and enhance connectivity across the country. Implementing these projects will generate an estimated 44.2 million person days of direct and indirect employment, the government said in a statement.

More on News:

The corridor approach has led to the identification of a network of 50,000 km of High-Speed Highway Corridors through a scientific transport study based on GSTN and toll data to support India’s transformation into a $30 trillion economy by 2047.

The four-lane projects:

Kharagpur – Moregram National High-Speed Corridor

• The 231 km 4-lane access-controlled corridor developed in Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) mode — two or more contractors — at Rs 10,247 crore cost supplements the existing 2-lane National Highway (NH) to increase capacity by 5 times between Kharagpur and Moregram.
• The corridor aims to provide efficient connectivity between states like West Bengal, Odisha, Andra Pradesh, and Northeast India.
• The 4-lane project is expected to reduce freight travel time from 9-10 hours to 3-5 hours, lowering logistics costs.

Ayodhya Ring Road

• The 68 km 4-lane access-controlled ring road developed in HAM mode at Rs 3,935 crore cost is expected to reduce congestion on NHs passing through Ayodhya.
• Enabling faster movement of pilgrims to Rama Mandir.
• The 4-lane project aims to provide connectivity to tourists arriving via Lucknow, Ayodhya airports, and major railway stations.

Pathalgaon and Gumla of Raipur-Ranchi National High­-Speed Corridor

• The Gumla Section of Raipur-Ranchi National High-speed Corridor, a 137 km 4-lane access-controlled section developed at Rs 4,473 crore cost is expected to enhance connectivity between mining areas in Gumla, Lohardaga, Raigarh, Korba, Dhanbad and industrial zones in Raipur, Durg, Korba, Bilaspur, Bokaro, Dhanbad.

Northern Guwahati Bypass and widening of existing Guwahati Bypass

• The 121 km Guwahati Ring Road developed in Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) mode — public and private partnerships — at Rs 5,729 crore cost is focused on 3 sections;
• 56 km 4-lane access-controlled Northern Guwahati Bypass
  8 km existing 4-lane bypass on NH 27 to 6 lanes
  58 km existing bypass on NH 27
• The 4-lane project is aimed at providing connectivity to long-distance traffic on NH 27 (East-West Corridor) to the Northeast region and is expected to ease congestion on major NHs around Guwahati, connecting cities like Siliguri, Silchar, Shillong, Jorhat,Tezpur, Jogigopha, Barpeta.

The six-lane projects

Gwalior National High-Speed Corridor:

• The 88 km high-speed corridor developed as a 6-lane access-controlled highway on BOT mode at Rs 4,613 crore cost supplements the existing 4-lane NH to increase capacity by over 2 times between Agra and Gwalior.
• The project is expected to enhance connectivity to tourist destinations in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and reduce distance by 7 per cent and travel time by 50 per cent.

Tharad – Deesa – Mehsana – Ahmedabad National High-Speed Corridor

• The 214 km 6-lane corridor developed on BOT mode at Rs 10,534 crore cost will connect the Amritsar-Jamnagar and Delhi-Mumbai corridors in Gujarat and is expected to provide connectivity for freight from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthanto major ports in Maharastra.
• The project is aimed to reduce distance by 20 per cent and travel time by 60 per cent between Tharad and Ahmedabad.

Kanpur Ring Road

• The 47 km 6-lane access-controlled section developed on Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) mode — government funds while the private sector provides construction instruments — at Rs 3,298 crore cost will complete 6-lane NH ring around Kanpur, segregating long-distance traffic on key NHs from city traffic.
• The project is expected to improve logistics efficiency for freight travelling between Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.

The eight-lane project:

Nashik Phata – Khed Corridor near Pune

• The 30 km 8-lane elevated corridor from Nashik Phata to Khed developed on BOT mode at Rs 7,827 crore cost is aimed at providing high-speed connectivity for traffic between industrial centers of Chakan, Bhosari, among others on NH-60 between Pune and Nashik.
• The project is expected to alleviate the serious congestion around Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Hybrid Annuity Model:

• This Hybrid Annuity Model is a mixture of EPC and BOT.

EPC:

• EPC stands for Engineering, Procurement, and Construction and refers to that method of infrastructure growth wherein government pays private companies or players to lay roads.
• However, the private entity has no further responsibility in the toll collection, maintenance, or road’s ownership.

BOT:

• Under the BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer) model of infrastructure construction, private entities play a prolonged and vital role.
• They are responsible for building, maintaining and operating the roads and transferring the asset back to the government after 10-15 years.
• In BOT, the private entity is responsible for constructing these roads and collecting toll revenue or annuity fees (BOT-Annuity) from the Indian government.

HAM:

• HAM or Hybrid Annuity Model combines EPC And BOT-Annuity.
• EPC constitutes 40%, and BOT-Annuity constitutes 60% of this model.
• NHAI or the National Highway Authority of India gives up to 40% of the total project cost, in 5 tranches after the achievement of certain milestones, whereas a road developer will have to raise the remaining 60% of the project’s cost.
• Around 20-25% of the project cost will be their sole equity investment, while the authorities will raise the remaining as debt.