Gujarat roadways

Even as announcing that it would initiate road projects worth Rs 5,900 crore in the next financial year, Gujarat government gave special emphasis on the high-profile Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar state expressway. To cost coffers Rs 2,500 crore, starting with the coming financial year, 2012-13, the new expressway will pass through the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), and among the main spots it will touch is the proposed Dholera airport, in the south of Ahmedabad. State roads and buildings minister Anandiben Patel told the state assembly that “preliminary work for the project like measurement, road alignment, land acquisition and utility shifting will begin in the coming financial year”. A senior government official added, “Measurement work is already over. Now, the process of land acquisition will start for 120 km land road. A 150 metre wide corridor will be acquired all through. Along the state expressway, the proposal is to have a tube railway line.” The minister also announced in the House that the World Bank-supported project for building 1,577 km long roads at the cost of Rs 2,000 crore would be started in the coming financial year. “Based on a techno-feasibility report, the World Bank proposes to the rank roads and choose from those that the report has identified”, the official added. Among the roads that are being considered include for the World Bank project include Himatnagar-Mehsana-Radhanpur road, Sevalia-Umreth-Vasad road, Junagadh-Dhoraji road, Jamnagar-Khambhaliya-Dwarka road, Dabhoi-Bodeli-Alirajpur road, and Vansda-Dharampur-Vapi road. “The World Bank team has made four visits to Gujarat for the project, and we expect it to provide funding starting with October”, the official said, adding, “While the first three roads are proposed to be turned into four lanes, the other three will be widened to 10 metres.” A third project the state government proposes to take up is resurfacing of 5,800 km long roads which, the state minister admitted, were not resurfaced for the last seven years. “The work is proposed to be completed in three years, and would cost Rs 1,400 crore”, the minister said.