Standard Post with Image

Widening of National Highways in The State Left in A Limbo

  • The most significant achievement regarding the national highways in Goa-NH 17 and NH 4-A-in the last five years was the building of the Goa Velha bypass road on NH 17.But the most regressive step regarding the national highways in Goa was that the widening of both the highways in Goa fell through.The work of widening the 65km-long NH 4-A from the Karnataka-Goa border to Panaji was awarded to Infrastructure Developers Limited (IRB) at a cost of 471 crore. But additional demands by the state government to construct more flyovers, more underpasses and change the alignment raised the cost of the project by 106 crore. National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had decided to re-tender the project.

  • Likewise, the project for 4/6 laning of the 136km-long NH 17 from Patradevi to Pollem has been awarded to the Hyderabad-based IVRCL group at a cost of around 3,100 crore. But tall demands by the state government led to a cost escalation of 806 crore on the widening of NH 17, leading to the project being virtually scrapped. The NH 17 widening project will also be retendered, NHAI sources said.No significant addition to the state highways, major district roads or village roads happened in Goa in the last five years, except for the renewal and repairs of the road surfaces.

  • With the widening of the two national highways in Goa in limbo, the state only has plans to convert the existing state highway from the Karaswaddo junction in Mapusa till Khandepar near Ponda as the new NH 17-C. It has been proposed to the Union ministry of road transport and highways to notify this 45km stretch of road as a national highway. This is in line with the Regional Plan 2021, which has proposed that once such a road comes up, it will usher in industrial development in the interior areas of Goa and even decongest the crowded coastal belt.

  • There is a dire need for three new bridges in the state - one each over the Talpona and Galgibaga rivers and an additional bridge over River Zuari. All three were part of the NH 17 widening project, but that project is in the doldrums. Chief minister Digambar Kamat on December 17, 2011, pleaded with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi not to club the three bridges with the widening project but to sanction their construction separately.On the other hand, it is an accepted fact that the quality of the roads in Goa is far superior to those in the neighbouring states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala.

Source