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Expressways are essential, a priority, PM tells industry

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today called upon the private sector to invest in expressways to enable the government to accelerate the country's annual economic growth rate from five per cent to at least seven per cent.

He was inaugurating a four-day International Congress on Express Highways Development in India, organised by the ministry of surface transport and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi.

Vajpayee said that the enhanced economic growth would enable the government to eliminate poverty and unemployment and improve the living standards of the people. For this, he said, India needed better infrastructure.

The prime minister said that the government had already started allocating more public funds for infrastructure. For roads, the government had allocated 42 per cent more than the last year, he said adding that the government had set aside Rs 7.98 billion extra for highways development by introducing a cess on petrol.

Vajpayee said the government had created necessary legal and institutional framework for implementing large infrastructure projects and the bid documents for this purpose had been finalised.

He said the road network had been expanded to 3.1 million km, the second largest in the world. Nearly 90 per cent of villages having a population of 1,500 and more will be connected by roads soon, he added.

The prime minister, however, said the road network suffered from major infirmities like unsatisfactory condition of rural roads, and large regional imbalances in the road network. The present network was unable to deliver high-speed and high capacity traffic along the high density routes which was critical to the economic growth.

The prime minister suggested that widening roads and constructing multi-lane highways could reduce congestion and increase speed to some extent but not to the desired level.

Vajpayee said Indian trade and industries were losing their competitive advantage because of the limited transportation capacity of roads. He said bad roads were not only unsafe but also cause large-scale wear and tear of vehicles and wastage of energy. He said users of road transport infrastructure, therefore, were now demanding good roads and were willing to even pay for them through tolls.

He said India needs expressways of world class and this should be an important feature of the new integrated national transport policy.

The prime minister said that both central and state governments were currently building a few expressways. The National Highways Authority of India was building the Ahmedabad- Vadodara expressway in Gujarat and the Durgapur expressway in West Bengal.

The Maharashtra government was also building Bombay-Pune expressway.

The prime minister said the proposed mega project in the road sector was to build a six-lane north-south corridor linking Kashmir to Kanyakumari and an east-west corridor linking Silchar to Saurashtra totalling 7,000 km. He said the task force had recommended merging the existing plan for a golden quadrilateral, which would link the four main metros with highways, with the corridor project and suitable spur projects. He said this will be implemented in a phased manner and had tremendous potential for employment generation. Some stretches of these highways will be expressways, he said.

Vajpayee said the task force had considered the recommendations of a sub-group on innovative financing of this mega project. The money raised for the project through various means will be dedicated to a special fund for its implementation and could not become part of the general budget, he said.

Thambidurai in his welcome address said the government was considering a proposal to set up a Expressway Planning, Development and Management Organisation to ensure better traffic management and operations on expressways. He said expressways would be very sophisticated facilities involving the use of latest technology and management methods and would require a number of ancillary facilities like wayside amenities.

Thambidurai said the prime minister would lay the foundation stone for six-laning of north-south corridor linking Kashmir to Kanyakumari at Bangalore on January 2, 1999.

The minister said Indian industries could become globally competitive only if transportation was fast and efficient. He said this was also true for foreign trade where Indian exporters have to compete with foreign companies in a highly competitive environment.

He said in view of this the surface transport ministry had undertaken a programme of four-laning of heavy traffic sections of national highways with the assistance of international funding agencies. He said now these projects were being undertaken by private sector participation also.

UNI

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