WORLD REPORT: INDIA

National Highways Development Plan (NHDP) Another interesting plan comes from the M through upgrading and the construction of new Ministry of Shipping and Road Transport, which roads. Work is scheduled through to 2015, is considering a 'green corridor' highway project although the aim is to eventually upgrade all solely for farmers with 'no toll' charges that National Highways. would link rural roads with National Highways, Indeed, at the Road Design and Construction and this is likely to be developed along with the Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (18- six-lane project under the NHDP. 19 May 2010/www.roaddesignasia.com), Nirmal The National Highways Authority of India Jit Singh, (NHAI) is the government body responsible for Director General (Road Development), implementing the NHDP and all its contracts Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, India, whether for construction or BOT (build, operate, is pencilled in to give an overview of the $70 MSK Projects (India), in transfer) are awarded through competitive bidding billion NHDP project. This will include an update joint venture with Chetak However, indications are that private sector on the project's current status, developments Enterprises and BSBK, has participation is increasing, and this is through within the several key completed phases and a big fleet of Volvo construction contracts and BOT for some equipment and is carrying addressing the challenges faced. stretches, based on either the lowest annuity or out upgrading to four lanes The NHDP broadly consists of developing of the Bhopal-Dewas road the lowest lump sum payment from the 1,000km of expressways; 8,737km of roads, project in Madhya Pradesh government. including 3,846km of National Highways in the BOT contracts allow tolling on those stretches north-east; four-laning 20,000km of National of the NHDP, and a large component of highways Highways and 6,736km on North-South and is to be developed through public-private East-West corridors (Srinagar in the north to partnerships (PPPs), with several high-traffic Kanyakumari in the south, and Silchar in the stretches already awarded to private companies east to Porbandar in the west); six-laning on a BOT basis. Indeed, late last year, the 6,500km of the (the route operation, maintenance and transfer of nine connecting the four major cities of , stretches of highways, covering 1,400km, were Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai) and selected given by the NHAI to PPP for the first time. National Highways, and widening 20,000km of For example, India's National Highways to two lanes. (R-Infra) is planning to launch infrastructure Indeed, on the basis of route numbers there is projects worth a total of $2.14 billion in the next over 250 National Highways in India and apart seven months, including four road projects. The from linking the four major cities they also pass first of these agreements is due shortly from the through other major cities and towns including State Road Development (MSRDC) Agra, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Amritsar, for part of the 13.75km Western Freeway Sea Aurangabad, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhavnagar, Link Road Project, an ambitious project to Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, connect the suburbs of Mumbai with downtown Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Mumbai. The first phase of the project, the tolled Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Rajiv Ghandi Setu (- Sea Link) Kangra, Kanpur, Kullu, Lucknow, Madurai, already links Bandra in the north with Worli to Manglore, Nagpur, Patna, Rajkot, Ranchi, Shimla, the south with a cable stayed bridge spanning Thiruvanathapuramm, Tiruchirapalli, Tirupati, the Mahim Bay. The next stage of the project is Trivandrum, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, the building of a freeway along the city's western Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam. seaboard, linking Worli with Nariman Point. I MB buckets used on motorway THE FIRST motorway connecting the lanes in both directions. benefit from a fast and greater flow of its buckets work using the hydraulic cities of Hyderabad-Bangalore will be It will represent an important communication, transportation and system of the excavator they are approximately 600km long, with three change in India as the country will commerce networks, which up until now fitted to, and, "unlike traditional have been carried out mainly by sea. crushers, offer significantly reduced Italian company MB is supplying transportation and waste disposal crusher buckets to help build the costs, thus allowing inert materials to motorway: the BF120.4 bucket will be be recycled." used to produce the stabilised Guido Azzolin, managing director pavements every 50km. of MB, said: "We are extremely According to MB a feature of the optimistic on the successful outcome BF120.4 is that it is the only piece of of the motorway that will connect the equipment capable of reducing the cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore, size of crushed granite from 20cm to both extremely excited to try out our 4cm, thus "making the job easier and highly technological, Italian-made MB crusher buckets are working on the more versatile." buckets and to obtain a new new Hyderabad-Bangalore motorway The Breganze-based company communication line that we are sure (currently in the process of obtaining will be appreciated by the Indian the ISO 14001 certification) says that country." I

26 ©Route One Publishing January/February 2010 www.worldhighways.com