Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

Hitches will not hit Golden Quadrilateral Project

By Govind D.Belgaumkar

BANGALORE May 30. Barring a few exceptions, most of the packages of the Golden Quadrilateral Project of the Centre in Karnataka are likely to be completed by December by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Though the Union Minister for Surface Transport, B.C.Khanduri, said on May 22 that the project faced the threat of being delayed by a year due to problems in Karnataka and some other States, sources here exuded confidence that the difficulties would be overcome and the deadline met.

However, there is a hitch. The improvement of service roads may not be completed by that time. It could take another two or three months to fully execute them.

Maj. Gen. Khanduri had stated that the project would get delayed by a year owing to problems pertaining to land acquisition and rigid tendering procedures proposed by multi-lateral funding agencies such as the World Bank. When work started on the Golden Quadrilateral Project to convert the roads connecting the four metros into four lanes, the original deadline was to complete it by December 2004.

But Maj. Gen. Khanduri advanced the deadline by a year. But his May 22 statement came as a surprise.

The sources said that the minister's views had to be understood in a different context. He did not mean that all the packages would get delayed. Unless all the packages were fully completed all over the country, the minister could not claim that the project had been executed.

While there was good progress with regard to most packages in the State, land acquisition had affected two or three of them. While a majority of them could be completed by December, a few might be completed by August/September next, despite the difficulties involved. For example, the packages involving six-laning of the Hyderabad-Bangalore section from 527 km. to 535 km. and 539 km. to 556 km. could not be completed on schedule, the sources said.

Two of the packages -- the Rs. 25-crore Nelamangala-Tumkur, Belgaum-Maharashtra border (515 km. to 592 km. of National Highway 4) -- are being executed on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. The remaining projects are being implemented by the NHAI.

The Rs. 25,055-crore Golden Quadrilateral Project envisages linking of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai with roads of international quality.

Over 560 km. of road is being improved under the project at a cost of about Rs. 3,000 crore.

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