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BANGALORE, JAN 2: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Saturday said that the government would seek active participation from the Indian private sector and the foreign investors to invest in the mega highway project.
Launching the National Integrated Highway Project with foundation laying ceremony for six lane carriageway and dedicating the `Four Lane Carriageway' of Bangalore-Hosur Section at Singasandra, 15 km from the city, Vajpayee said that the Task Force on Infrastructure had finalised a model concession document for facilitating investment by the private sector.
``The task force has prepared a framework for ensuring expeditious implementation of the `Golden Quadrilateral' Mega Highway Project, which would connect Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Silchar to Saurashtra. It has also prepared a blueprint for financing the project so that sufficient resources are available with the National Highway Authority.''
Finances raised for the implementation of this programme, either through cess or other measureswould go to a dedicated fund, Vajpayee said.
Stating that land acquisition was an essential part of the road construction and other infrastructure projects, Vajpayee said that innovative methods had to be evolved to ensure reasonable and timely compensations for the acquired land and also subsequent commercialisation of that land.
Traditionally, road projects in India had suffered from enormous time overruns, which in turn led to cost overruns. This should stop, Vajpayee said.
``The total length of the National Highway network when the BJP government took over was 38,517 km. Since then, we have declared plans to construct 11,068 km of new highway. Of this, 868 km have been proposed to be added in Karnataka, bringing the total length of National Highways in the state to 3,229 km,'' he said.
``The government has identified 20 sections of National Highways in various states on the East-West and North-South corridors, on which work would be started during this financial year. The six-lane highway will notonly further integrate the nation through a network of world-class highways, but it will also place India on the fast lane to socio-economic development,'' he added.
HIGHWAY AUTHORITY: Speaking on the occasion, Union surface transport minister M Thambi Durai said the government would be constituting an `express highway authority' to construct over 13,000 km of express highways.
The government was planning to spend over Rs 1.3 lakh crore for this project. Funds would be raised from various means, including levying cess on diesel and petrol, Thambi Durai said. The budgetary support to maintain Highways was only Rs 2,700 crore, whereas the actual requirement was double the allocation. The rate of growth of traffic had touched about 10 per cent during the last few years. Since the projected GNP growth was six per cent, a superior quality infrastructure was necessary, he said.
Union commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde appealed to the prime minister to take up the Ganga-Cauvery linking project,enabling maximum utility of river water.
``Though there is sufficient water in our rivers, it is just flowing into sea and not being utilised,'' he said.
Chief minister J H Patel assured the co-operation of the state government in developmental projects.
``There may be many political differences between us, but when it comes to developmental work, we will fully cooperate, with the Centre,'' Patel said.
``If the state governments are strong, the Centre will also be strong by itself. So please allow us to become strong,'' Patel said.
Reacting to earlier comments by Hegde that the roads in Bangalore were in bad shape and the construction of fly overs was being delayed, Patel said ``even Ramakrishna Hegde could have implemented these projects.''
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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