Five NH projects to be commissioned in three years

NOTE: Why so much less spending for NH in KBK

Business Standard, Jan 13, 2011
The work on five major National Highway (NH) projects in the state- Bhubaneswar-Puri, Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole, Sambalpur-Bargarh and Remudi-Rajamunda (NH-215) will begin in February 2011. While work on four-laning of the Bhubaneswar-Puri NH is expected to be completed soon, the remaining projects will be commissioned within three years."The work on these NH projects will commence in February 2011 and the projects are expected to be commissioned within three years. The work is being taken up on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the cost assessment will be made by NHAI. Another review meeting will be held within the next two weeks to expedite forest clearance and land acquisition for these projects”, the state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told media persons after a high-level meeting.


While work will be taken up for four-laning of Bhubaneswar-Puri (60 km) and Sambalpur-Bargarh (88-km) NHs, the Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole (62 km) highways will be six laned. As per the thumb rule Rs 4 crore will be spent per km on building these highways.

Presently, the state has an NH network of 360 km which includes the 450-km Golden Quadrilateral stretch.It may be noted that the Orissa government has allotted Rs 1131.65 crore till the end of November for construction and repair of various road projects in the 30 districts of the state as against a total expenditure pegged at Rs 1407.01 crore for 2010-11 in the State Budget.
The allocation of 1131.65 crore includes Non-Plan expenditure of Rs 417.82 crore and Plan expenditure of Rs 713.82 crore,

The highest allocation has been made for Ganjam district (Rs 184.83 crore) followed by Khurda (Rs 117.82 crore) and Keonjhar (Rs 69.69 crore).

The funds allocated for other districts are Angul (Rs 32.44 crore), Balasore (Rs 36.31 crore), Bargarh (Rs 21.03 crore), Jajpur (Rs 71.10 crore), Kalahandi (Rs 17.55 crore), Bolangir (Rs 34.83 crore), Korpaut (Rs 24.06 crore), Sundargarh (Rs 63.24 crore), Puri (Rs 41.46 crore), Mayurbhanj (Rs 39.42 crore), Nayagarh (Rs 27.38 crore), Malkangiri (Rs 4.57 crore), Nuapada (Rs 17.71 crore) and Rayagada (Rs 16.22 crore) to name a few.

The state works department had completed the construction of 919 km road network in 15 projects in 2009-10. The department spent 98.4 per cent of the Non-Plan outlay and 94 per cent of the Plan outlay during the last fiscal.

The department expects to spend Rs 863.75 crore under the Plan and Rs 765.8 crore under the Non-Plan scheme in 2010-11.