Outer ring road around A’bad soon

A new ring road around ever-growing Ahmedabad is taking shape. National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to lay an ‘outer’ ring road to keep heavy traffic out of the city. A study for the project, under phase VII of Centre’s National Highway Development Project, is to start early next year. In addition, a similar project is being envisaged for Surat as well. The second ring road will circle around the existing Sardar Patel Ring Road of Ahmedabad. While the existing stretch is 76 km long, the new ring road may go up to 130 km, said an NHAI official. Similarly, SP Ring Road encircles an area of about 400 square km, while the new stretch will cover 600 sq km. “When state urban development department had planned the four-lane road for SP Ring Road, they did not think it would turn into a normal city road so soon. This has also pushed us to act faster. Though our focus is on projects under phase III and V, the ring road project would start soon too,” said the official. The project is at conceptualisation stage and the feasibility study shall start early next year, according to the official. SP Ring Road project had cost state government well over Rs 1,000 crore. NHAI is looking to spend double the amount for new ring road. “Initially, the ring road was being planned around 3-4 km away from the SP ring road. But, given the pace of city’s growth, it has been pushed 5-10 km away,” a state government official said. It will go behind Bopal and all such newly developing areas, he added. A project is expected to take off on similar lines for Surat city as well. However, as the city has sea on one side, a complete ring road shall not be needed. It would therefore be a major bypass, encircling the city on one side.