Uttar Pradesh is giving a massive boost the state's road infrastructure, starting with work on four major expressways. This would not only transform the state's landscape dramatically, but also spur industrial and agriculture development.
GangaExpressway (Sanauta Bridge-Ballia) : The 1,047-km-long, eight-lane access-controlled Ganga Expressway project that would run on the left embankment of river Ganga from Greater Noida, at one end of Uttar Pradesh, to Ballia, at its eastern end. The existing connectivity in this stretch is through two or four-lane national and state highways,which in most of the stretches are congested and in a dilapidated condition. Initially visualised as a marginal bund along the left bank of Ganga, it was supposed to mitigate the recurring problem of floods that inundated large parts of the state resulting in loss of fertile land, crops,life and property every year.But soon enough, the bund was proposed to be utilised for the construction of an access controlled eight-lane state-of-the-art expressway to cater to the traffic demands of the region which would also open new areas for development between the developed areas of NCR and backward areas of eastern UP.It is also expected to bring down the travel time between these two places to ten hours from the present 20 hours. Gradually, it took the shape of a grand Rs 40,000 crore project, which could not only help flood control and boost the road infrastructure of UP,but also transform the country’s highway landscape dramatically. It was not only the first time in the country that an infrastructure project of this dimension was being visualised for commission by the private sector through the public-private partnership (PPP) model, but it was also the fastest project to get off the ground and be tendered out to a developer.Announced by chief minister Mayawati in September 2007, this greenfield project was awarded to Jaypee Group in January 2008. The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority(UPEIDA),the nodal body setup to monitor the construction of expressways in the state, formally assigned the expressway to Jaypee Ganga Infrastructure Corporation Ltd in March,2008 with a concession period of 35 years (including construction period of four years) on design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) basis. The concession agreement empowered the concessionaire to collect the toll during the concession period and UPEIDA was to provide the concessionaire 12,281 hectaresof additional land for development as eight landparcels at Bulandshahar, Kanshiram Nagar, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgargh, Allahabad, Varanasi, and Mirzapur with a floor area ratio (FAR)of 2.5. This land for development is to be allotted on lease for a period of 90 years.
However, right from its inception, the project was beset with setbacks. Apart from getting the alignment of the expressway approved and facing stiff opposition from farmers alleging that earmarking almost 80% of fertile farmland was a land grab, there were allegations galore by opposition parties that the Bahujan Samaj Party government led by Mayawati had awarded the project to the Jaypee group dubiously . Infact, the project also faced flak on the ecology front in May 2009 when a Varanasi-based social organisation, Ganga Mahasabha,filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court stating that the expressway project would expose large parts of the state to environmental hazards. Passing an order, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court restrained the state government from proceeding with the project and directed it to obtain prior environmental clearance from the state-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority before proceeding with the construction work. In the meantime, while actual groundwork has been halted by the court's orders, the Jaypee group is in the process of getting a fresh environment clearance from the state's Environment Impact Assessment Authority . It has also completed a detailed survey of 992 km of the expressway , and survey of the remaining 57.4 km will becompleted shortly . While the company has also achieved the financial closure of Ganga Expressway project in December 2008, the estimated cost of the project has overshot many times. It would be completed in almost five years from the date of commencement of work.
In fact, the project, which was seen as an engine of transformation for the state's economy, is presently caught up in the debate of development versus destruction. While the chief argument in favour of the project is that since the expressway will be constructed on the embankment on the left bank of the river Ganga, which is more prone to floods, it would give relief to millions of flood-affected people and also benefit the farmers of these areas who will get the opportunity to grow two crops instead of one. This in turn will improve their financial status.In addition, it is expected to lead to an economic revolution, as by providing fast connectivity through the expressway ,it will be an added boon,especially to transport perishable goods like vegetable and fruits from the hinterlands of the eastern parts of the state to the national capital. The eight selected landparcels,too,will usher in a wave of development in the form of infrastructure facilities like electricity , water, roads, health services, educational institutions and housing.It will also lead to industrial development.As many as 20 ITIs, ten polytechnics and five engineering level institutes, along with a medical college and various paramedical schools, are also expected to be established. In fact, hundreds of agro-based large and small-scale industries will also be established that would directly benefit farmers. It is expected that seven to eight lakh persons will either reside or work in these areas in the next ten years. To serve them, commercial establishments, shops, hotels, bus stations, truck terminus,buses and taxies will also operate, giving employment to more people.
However, concurrently , there are many arguments against the project, too. The chief among them being that if the flow of the Ganga will be tampered with the project would become an environmental catastrophe. Another is the destruction of millions of acres of fertile land in the Ganga Yamuna doab, leading to food security issues later on.
However, right from its inception, the project was beset with setbacks. Apart from getting the alignment of the expressway approved and facing stiff opposition from farmers alleging that earmarking almost 80% of fertile farmland was a land grab, there were allegations galore by opposition parties that the Bahujan Samaj Party government led by Mayawati had awarded the project to the Jaypee group dubiously . Infact, the project also faced flak on the ecology front in May 2009 when a Varanasi-based social organisation, Ganga Mahasabha,filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court stating that the expressway project would expose large parts of the state to environmental hazards. Passing an order, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court restrained the state government from proceeding with the project and directed it to obtain prior environmental clearance from the state-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority before proceeding with the construction work. In the meantime, while actual groundwork has been halted by the court's orders, the Jaypee group is in the process of getting a fresh environment clearance from the state's Environment Impact Assessment Authority . It has also completed a detailed survey of 992 km of the expressway , and survey of the remaining 57.4 km will becompleted shortly . While the company has also achieved the financial closure of Ganga Expressway project in December 2008, the estimated cost of the project has overshot many times. It would be completed in almost five years from the date of commencement of work.
In fact, the project, which was seen as an engine of transformation for the state's economy, is presently caught up in the debate of development versus destruction. While the chief argument in favour of the project is that since the expressway will be constructed on the embankment on the left bank of the river Ganga, which is more prone to floods, it would give relief to millions of flood-affected people and also benefit the farmers of these areas who will get the opportunity to grow two crops instead of one. This in turn will improve their financial status.In addition, it is expected to lead to an economic revolution, as by providing fast connectivity through the expressway ,it will be an added boon,especially to transport perishable goods like vegetable and fruits from the hinterlands of the eastern parts of the state to the national capital. The eight selected landparcels,too,will usher in a wave of development in the form of infrastructure facilities like electricity , water, roads, health services, educational institutions and housing.It will also lead to industrial development.As many as 20 ITIs, ten polytechnics and five engineering level institutes, along with a medical college and various paramedical schools, are also expected to be established. In fact, hundreds of agro-based large and small-scale industries will also be established that would directly benefit farmers. It is expected that seven to eight lakh persons will either reside or work in these areas in the next ten years. To serve them, commercial establishments, shops, hotels, bus stations, truck terminus,buses and taxies will also operate, giving employment to more people.
However, concurrently , there are many arguments against the project, too. The chief among them being that if the flow of the Ganga will be tampered with the project would become an environmental catastrophe. Another is the destruction of millions of acres of fertile land in the Ganga Yamuna doab, leading to food security issues later on.
The Ganga Expressway Length : 1049.395 kms .It is divided into 4 packages .
Package-I (Including Link Road-1) Gautam Buddha Nagar to Farrukhabad Length 272.44 Km.
Package-II (Including Link Road-2) Farrukhabad to Dalmau Length -326.36 Km.
Package-III Dalmau to Aurai (Including Link Road-3 ) Length 237.93 Km.
Package-IV Aurai to Ballia Length -212.665 Km.
Yamuna Expressway (Greater Noida-Agra) :Touted to be a landmark project, is fast nearing completion. The Rs 1,200 crore 165 km-long six-lane access-controlled expressway from Greater Noida to Agra was conceived way back in 2003 by the then Mayawati government to not only reduce the travel time from the NCR to the Taj city,but also to open up new vistas of industrial and urban growth in the region. But soon, the Mulayam Singh Yadav government that came to power in November 2003 halted work on it and constituted one inquiry committee after another to look into charges that Mayawati had committed irregularities in awarding the project to Jaiprakash Associates,the concessionaire of the project.
However,the first inquiry committee headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra was disbanded by the high court, as was the second one headed by former chief vigilance commissioner VS Mathur.The third committee,headed by Justice S Narayan, in its report, not only rebutted all the allegations but also called the project a “landmark event for the industrial development of Uttar Pradesh.” Soon after being exonerated by the commission, work on the expressway began again in 2006.
And when Mayawati came back to power in May 2007, instructions were given to speed up the pace of the work and have the project completed before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010. Work on acquiring 25,000 hectares of land for the land parcels is also going on simultaneously. The land in Agra and Tappal, in Aligarh, meanwhile,will be acquired after the high court gives its verdict. The court has reserved its judgement on a plea by farmers that the state government had used the emergency clause in acquiring land for the project.
A senior state government official said: “This road will not only provide a speedy, hassle-free 100 minute travel till Agra city but will also dodge the bottlenecks of the city to provide a smooth ride till the Taj.” Indeed, generating more traffic in the region and better interconnectivity between the two end points has necessarily resulted in the entire stretch becoming an investor’s delight, complete with townships, export & economic zones and an international airport at Jewar.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority,the agency in charge of accelerating the region’s overall development, has already envisaged a logistic hub spread over 500 acres along the expressway corridor and has also invited entrepreneurs to set up industrial, IT/ITES, bio-tech, institutional, sports,leisure or service industry facilities in the area.
However,the first inquiry committee headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra was disbanded by the high court, as was the second one headed by former chief vigilance commissioner VS Mathur.The third committee,headed by Justice S Narayan, in its report, not only rebutted all the allegations but also called the project a “landmark event for the industrial development of Uttar Pradesh.” Soon after being exonerated by the commission, work on the expressway began again in 2006.
And when Mayawati came back to power in May 2007, instructions were given to speed up the pace of the work and have the project completed before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010. Work on acquiring 25,000 hectares of land for the land parcels is also going on simultaneously. The land in Agra and Tappal, in Aligarh, meanwhile,will be acquired after the high court gives its verdict. The court has reserved its judgement on a plea by farmers that the state government had used the emergency clause in acquiring land for the project.
A senior state government official said: “This road will not only provide a speedy, hassle-free 100 minute travel till Agra city but will also dodge the bottlenecks of the city to provide a smooth ride till the Taj.” Indeed, generating more traffic in the region and better interconnectivity between the two end points has necessarily resulted in the entire stretch becoming an investor’s delight, complete with townships, export & economic zones and an international airport at Jewar.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority,the agency in charge of accelerating the region’s overall development, has already envisaged a logistic hub spread over 500 acres along the expressway corridor and has also invited entrepreneurs to set up industrial, IT/ITES, bio-tech, institutional, sports,leisure or service industry facilities in the area.
Upper Ganga Expressway (Sanauta Bridge-Kanpur): After commissioning three expressways, the UP government has now given its approval for conducting technical and financial viability study for yet another ambitious expressway along the Upper Ganga Canal bank. The new expressway will start from Sanauta Bridge in Greater Noida and its end point will be Kanpur. Approximately 360-km long, it will pass through Bulandshahar, Aligarh, Etah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad and Kanpur districts. The state Cabinet has given its in-principle approval for appointing a consultant and conducting a feasibility study on the project to UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the state's nodal agency for monitoring the construction of expressways. Working on the pattern of the Sanauta-Purkazi project, this expressway, too, is proposed to be developed on the state irrigation department land falling on the banks of the Upper Ganga Canal.According to officials, since land acquisition problem is the main stumbling block, the state government is thinking of providing government land for the project. "We are waiting for the consultant to give an indication as to how much land would be needed for the project. It would then be worked out as to how much land is already available with the state irrigation department and how much more is required," said a state government official. Over twice the size of the Sanauta-Purkazi expressway project, this stretch is the more ambitious one, as it will provide a six-lane, access-controlled travel through some densely populated areas that are currently connected by a network of congested state highways, major district roads and a national highway.
Not only will the proposed expressway provide an integrated road network in the region, enabling high-speed connectivity between industrial, commercial and residential hubs,but it is also expected to decongest the increasing traffic on the existing roads and lead to the development of local industry and handicrafts, develop tourism and pilgrimage, and open up new employment opportunities for millions.
Better and speedy connectivity to the national capital as well as to Uttarakhand will enable quick transportation of perishable goods like fruits, vegetables and dairy products, thereby setting off an economic boom, feel industry analysts.
Moreover, with Yamuna Expressway and Sanauta-Purkazi Upper Ganga Canal Expressway already being functional by the time this expressway comes up, interconnectivity within the state would become very easy .That in itself would foster the growth of industry and lead to economic prosperity . At present, work on the project is on at a breakneck speed, but officials close to the concessionaire state that while the first 60-km stretch from both ends will be completed by September this year, the remaining right-of-way in-between would take a few more months till March 2011. It will be followed by the completion of the entire project, replete with land parcels, by April 2013. After having faced bitter protests on land acquisition for the Yamuna and Ganga Expressways, the UP government has now come up with a module for development in which government land would be given to the selected developer free of cost so that the project gets fast, controversy-free commissioning. Proposed to be built on the PPP mode, the eight-laned, access-controlled, 150-km-long Upper Ganga Canal Expressway would run on the right bank of the canal from Sanauta bridge in Greater Noida to Purkazi on the Uttarakhand border. It will connect with the proposed Meerut International Airport-DFC terminal link expressway and the Purkazi-Deoband link expressway . It would traverse Bulandshahar, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur districts of the state. The feasibility study is complete and the project is now in its bidding stage. Shortlisting of bidders is in the process.
By making available almost the entire right-of-way land for the trunk expressway free of cost, in addition to giving another 100 hectares of land free for building wayside amenities, the state government has not only facilitated work from the day the developer is handed over the project, but also opened the floodgates of heavy revenue earning, as the developer will have 100% revenue earning rights.
Facing no bottlenecks, the project has as an added incentive seven hydropower projects on the canal. It also has the option of probing the scope of navigation facility along the canal, both for tourism and commercial use. According to estimates, these hyrdo projects, having a total capacity of 37.4 mw, have the potential to generate a revenue of Rs 22.35 crore annually for 35 years of the concession period. Power generated can be used for the planned townships, while excess capacity can be sold in the open market. Apart from this source of revenue, the developer can collect toll from seven toll plazas across the expressway . Traffic is expected to grow manifold once the expressway is complete, as it will provide the shortest possible route from the national capital to the hill state of Uttarakhand.
The concessionaire will also have the rights on the land parcels for 90 years. It can also sub-lease the land for development. Land parcels will not only fetch very good real estate value, but also have the potential to attract the development of hi-tech modern townships, especially in and around the NCR. As a sweetener, the state government has declared that the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) can be stretched up to 2.5 times.
The project,which is to be built on DBFOT pattern, has a combined estimated cost of Rs 8,182 crore. While the cost for the expressway will be Rs 7,485 crore, the seven proposed hydropower projects will cost Rs 262 crore. If the navigation facility is also undertaken, its development cost would be Rs 435 crore,thereby taking the entire project cost to Rs 8,182 crore. It will have a concession period of 35 years.
While as many as 30-odd companies, including Reliance Infrastructure, Jaypee Infratech, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, GVK Power & Infrastructure, IRB Infrastructure Development, Nagarjuna Infrastructure, Punj Lloyd, Lanco Infrastrech and others, have showed initial interest in getting the bid rights for the project, the request for qualification evaluation report has qualified five applicants. They are: Era-Sibmost JV , DSC-Apollo JV , IRB Infrastructure Developers, Jaiprakash Associates and a consortium of Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Infraventures.
To make the project more lucrative, the Mayawati government has roped in the Noida Authority to connect the incoming traffic from Yamuna Expressway to the Upper Ganga Canal Expressway through a link road from Pari Chowk. In this way, traffic from Agra to Delhi can have direct access till Haridwar and the Delhi traffic,too,can have an express corridor to ease its burgeoning traffic.The project will not only provide faster connectivity between industrial and commercial hubs in the state, but also bring in economic growth. Though the expressway would cross NH 24 and 58, it will not run parallel to any of the existing roads and would cater to the traffic having different origins and destinations.
Assured of the viability of the project, the state government has decided to ask builders to pay back the state from their revenue stream. "The state government will give first preference to bids offering negative grant," said a senior state government official.
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