The Prime Minister,
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee would inaugurate Phase-I of the country’s
first National Expressway tomorrow at Ahmedabad. The Deputy Prime
Minister, Shri L.K. Advani would be the Chief Guest on the occasion
and the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Road Transport
and Highways, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) B.C. Khanduri would preside over
the function.
The Ahmedabad-Vadodara
Expressway, called National Expressway 1(NE 1), is a Government
of India Project that was entrusted to National Highways Authority
of India (NHAI) in September 1998. The Project was then integrated
with the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and was
made a part of the Delhi-Mumbai arm of the Golden Quadrilateral
component of NHDP.
The Ahmedabad-Vadodara
Expressway is to be 93.3 km long two-lane dual carriageway (to
be increased to three-lane dual carriageway in future) access
control facility enabling fast commuting between the two cities.
The Phase-I of the Expressway that is being inaugurated tomorrow
starts from Ahmedabad (Km. 0.0) and goes up to Nadiad (Km.43.4).
The Phase-II, targeted for completion by the end of this year,
covers the Nadiad (Km.43.4) to Vadodara (Km.93.3) stretch. The
likely completion cost of Phase-I is Rs.180 crore. Phase-II of
the expressway, at an awarded cost of Rs.295 crore, is progressing
well and 28% physical progress has been achieved.
The work for
Phase-I was entrusted to M/s Sumber Mitra Jaya of Indonesia in
July 2000. The Phase-II work was awarded to M/s LG Engg. and Construction
Corporation-M/s Nagarjuna Construction Company Joint Venture in
May 2001. The supervision of the Expressway Project is being carried
out through M/s Consulting Engineering Services (India) and M/s
Halcrow Transportation Infrastructure (UK).
The special features
of the Expressway include:
- High quality riding surface
- Long lasting superior performance
bituminous surface
- Two cloverleaf interchanges at
Nadiad and Anand junctions to exit or enter
- Full access control, fencing on
both sides - to prevent animals from coming on to the Expressway
- Proper system for signages and
road markings
