PRIME MINISTER TO LAY FOUNDATION STONE OF FOUR LANING OF SRINAGAR BYPASS TOMORROW

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The Prime Minister, Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be laying the foundation stone of four laning of the Srinagar bypass on National Highway 1 tomorrow. The Srinagar bypass project is a part of the 4076 km long North-South corridor of National Highways Development Project (NHDP). The Srinagar bypass project constitutes a length of 17.8 km and would be completed at a cost of Rs. 168 crore. It would include four major bridges with a total length of 708 meters. It would also include ten road intersections and one grade separated intersection. The four laning of Srinagar bypass would end traffic congestion on the bypass. The construction of proper road intersections would also result in increase in vehicular speed. The project would also lead to faster economic development of Srinagar in particular and the state of Jammu and Kashmir in general. It would also result in greater employment opportunities.

The North-South Corridor (connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari) and East-West Corridor (connecting Silchar to Porbandar) along with the Golden Quadrilateral (connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata) constitute the NHDP, the largest highways project ever undertaken in the country. Under NHDP, about 13,150 km of national highways are proposed to be 4/6 laned at a total estimated cost of Rs. 54,000 crore (at 1999 prices). The NHDP is being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The contracts awarded are being closely monitored at the highest level by NHAI and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways so that the targets are met with.

Out of the total Golden Quadrilateral length of 5846 km., work has already been completed on 1327 km. The GQ is targeted for completion by December 2004. The combined length of the two Corridors is 7300 km out of which 616 km has been already four laned. The Corridors are being targeted for completion by 2007, almost two years ahead of schedule.