Ahmedabad-Rajkot Corridor

The Rs 1,100 crore Ahmedabad-Rajkot high speed access control corridor will be a boon for both central Gujarat and Saurashtra. With travel time reducing from the existing 5 to 3 hours between Sarkhej crossroads and Bamanbore, the upcoming corridor can lead to faster movement of goods and people between the two regions.One of the objectives of the corridor was to develop regions around Rajkot, Jamnagar and Amreli in Saurashtra and a large portion of towns around Ahmedabad. This project corridor connects Ahmedabad and Rajkot districts and passes through the central Gujarat and Saurashtra.It further establishes connectivity with Kutch on the Western side and North and South Gujarat on eastern side of the state.With Saurashtra and central Gujarat alone expecting investments worth Rs 46,562 crore and Rs 21,486 crore respectively, which is 40 per cent of total investments promised to the state during Vibrant 2007, the corridor’s importance is being realized. Besides this, 9,633 industries are located in these two regions of the total 19,661 units in the state. This would see movement of 3.38 lakh labourers of the total 8.15 lakh labour population in the state. With the investments coming in, additional movement of 1.08 lakh labour population is expected in the coming years.Another important sector is ports. Nearly 10 ports spread over Saurashtra will gain the most from the corridor, according to the GIDB study. These ports include Navlakhi, Bedi, Okha, Kandla, Pipava, Sikha, Porbander, Bhavnagar and Dwarka. They have together handled 816 lakh metric tonnes goods in 2006-07, which is steep rise from 571 lakh metric tonnes in 2000-01.Within the two regions, Saurashtra boasts of some of the major tourist locations including Junagadh, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbander. Apart from archeological heritage, there are wild life sanctuaries and other important pilgrim centres in the region. Tourist movement along the proposed project corridor is also significant.Another important sector like agriculture development is significant in the project influence area, according to GIDB. The important crops include cotton, groundnut, bajra. Irrigated stretches of land can also be seen in project influence areas.Jamnagar, Surendranagar, Porbander, Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Junagadh are the major upcoming regions of the state. Stone, manganese, other clay, bauxite and gypsum are important minerals.

Cruising down at the speed of 100 km an hour to Rajkot will not be a dream for many Amdavadis any more. The Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) and the roads and building department have modelled a Rs 1,100 crore makeover for national Highway - NH8A between Sarkhej cross-roads and Bamanbore with central government assistance.The ambitious project is called the Ahmedabad-Rajkot high speed access controlled corridor. A project report prepared by LEA associates has been sent to the central government for approval. The project will be undertaken in two phases.The first phase would see the first 47 kilometre stretch from Sarkhej while the second stretch will be 122 kilometre.The project would be maintained by both the union roads transport and highway department and the state government.The corridor which will be 167.8 km long would be a combination of six lane and four lane roads.There would be two separate barricaded lanes for mixed, slow moving and local traffic that are destined towards small intervening towns. This traffic would not be allowed to mix with those on the corridor.The high speed corridor expects an average speed of 100 km an hour. At the moment the speed on the highway varies from 58 kmph and 61 kmph. The project would maintain road width between 45 metres and 60 metres in width.A total of four toll plazas are being planned on the corridor. Six flyovers, each of six lanes, is being planned between Harbad stream and Chotila town, while three new six-lane bridges are planned on Bhogavo, Nalla and Harbad streams.One of the key features of the corridor will be the special cattle crossing zones at Bhagula, Vadod, Sapar and Bagodara which happen to be one of the main reasons for major accidents on roads.