Roads in India : News & Discussions

Screenshot_20220608_115921.jpg
 

“Jhula Bailey Suspension Bridge” at Ramban, J&K made functional and opened for traffic in presence of Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh​

Accusing the previous governments in the past of deliberately neglecting the hill region, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology and Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the governments in the past deliberately neglected hill regions while Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi give a special focus to these areas.


Addressing a public rally here after ceremonially walking through the newly constructed Jhula Bailey Suspension Bridge, which has replaced the earlier one that was declared unsafe, Dr Jitendra Singh said, several decades old bridge was unsafe and accident prone but still none of the governments in the past bothered about it and allowed the national highway traffic to ply over it at grave risk to the general public. He hoped, one day analysts will try to find out why people here had to wait for nearly 70 years for PM Modi to arrive and give them justice.





image00101FL.jpg




Earlier, Dr Jitendra Singh walked through the main markets of town and acknowledged the gratitude of the people who have heaved a sigh of relief on the construction of the bridge.


Speaking at the rally, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that the important Maitra Bridge and the flyover to bypass the town are under construction day and night in double shifts. After their completion, and also the completion of the remaining stretch of national highway beyond Ramban, the road travel journey time from Jammu to Srinagar will be reduced to just about four hours.



Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that once there was a time when there was just one Government High School in Ramban. Today, he said, there are more than a dozen degree colleges and higher secondary schools in the district and recalled that this happened only in the last eight years. Not only this, he said, degree colleges have been set up in remote areas like Kastigarh and Ukhral.


Dr Jitendra Singh said, we have followed the policy of reaching out to the people who need us and bringing up the projects as per their requirements, irrespective of religion, cast, creed or party preference and hoped that this political culture above vote consideration would also be followed by others for the benefits of the youth whose energy is going to contribute for nation building for the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal


Emphasizing on giving a boost to StartUp movement, Dr Jitendra Singh said, soon there will be a comprehensive plan about agriculture related entrepreneurship for which this place has huge resources and which will be a lucrative source of livelihood for the youth.


Dr Jitendra Singh said, never before the resources of river Chenab have been fully exploited and now galaxy of multiple power projects coming up in the erstwhile Doda district. This region is going to be the power hub of North India and will also provide electricity to other States. He also recalled other monumental work done during the last eight years of construction of a Relay Radio Station at Nadha Top which caters to the whole of the district.
 

Shri Nitin Gadkari announces new projects worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore for the North East​

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari today announced sanctioning of upcoming New projects worth Rs.1.6 Lakh Crores in North East . At the concluding press conference of the review of NH projects in North East Region in Guwahati, Assam he said these projects include Roads, Ropeways, RoBs, Major Bridges across River Brahmaputra and other water bodies. Shri Gadkari said Multi Modal logistics parks have been also proposed at Udaipur in Tripura & Silchar in Assam.


image0011T02.jpg



Shri Gadkari said under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi we're working towards bridging the connectivity gap in North East India and giving momentum to transport infrastructure in the region.


image002SM13.jpg






The Minister said around 50 Way Side Amenities and 50 View Points are also being developed. Once completed, it would give significant boost to the Tourism sector and economy in North Eastern region , he added.


image003XI75.jpg



MJPS
 

India’s road infrastructure beginning to look impressive. But it’s a long way from world-class​

We are in the middle of an incredible infrastructure-building spree that occurs once in several generations in most countries, and we must keep it going.

As 2022 rolls to a close, I must honestly count my blessings. While the accursed Covid-19 virus that put all our lives on hold did finally catch up with me in January, things have increasingly returned to normal. And normal for me includes a lot of travel. But unlike most recent pre-Covid years, I have not passed through the immigration counter this year.

All my travel in 2022 has been domestic and—through some very memorable drives—I have explored parts of the country I have never seen before.

Witnessing development from the skies

One of the more fascinating things about travelling for me is flying. I have always been a bit of an aviation geek (or #avgeek on social media) and I love looking out of the window. These days, you get to see the transformation of India from the skies: New roads crisscrossing the country, new bridges, new airport terminals, and more.

In March, I took a helicopter ride from the Juhu Airfield in Mumbai to Shillim, next to the hilly resort town of Lonavala. That afforded me a birds-eye view of the urban makeover that Mumbai is getting. Sure, it has made commuting in the city a nightmare, but as my helicopter turned over the Mahalaxmi racecourse, I could see the work happening all across the southern half of the city. I was treated to a great view of the new Trans-Harbour Link—which will connect Mumbai to Navi Mumbai—and the upcoming Navi Mumbai Airport. I’m sure work has gone much ahead in the past eight months.

Landing at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport a few times this year, I have not only used the new runway but have also seen how quickly work has progressed on the terminal Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated. Then, there’s Terminal 1 at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, which is being completely reconstructed. It most certainly needs work, as anyone who has had the unfortunate experience of flying out of the capital in the morning can testify to the utterly insane queues at security.

On some days, when you take off from Delhi in a westerly direction and are seated on the left of the plane, you can notice the long-delayed Dwarka Expressway finally coming to life, as well as the 1,350-kilometre-long Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Being an automotive journalist is not just about the cars we drive, but also about driving on and experiencing some of these new roads.

India’s changing road infrastructure
The past few years have not just witnessed rapid construction of expressways, but also some other amazing highways and roads. This year, I have seen just how excellent the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has been with Project Vinayak, which connects remote areas on the Chinese and Pakistani borders across the country.

I just returned from Kargil, and while the weather can play spoilsport at times—as avalanches did with my group—BRO kept the road open. Earlier this year in Arunachal Pradesh, I drove on some excellent roads near the Line of Actual Control (LAC)—roads good enough for me to want to return to that corner with a performance car. But even other smaller roads in non-sensitive areas of the country have improved dramatically. My drive through Dakshina Kannada and Kerala’s Wayanad district, for instance, was blessed with very good surfaces for the most part.

It is true our complaints about municipal corruption and high traffic loads are not unfounded, as roads have deteriorated tremendously. But most state and national roads are excellent, as are roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). In fact, many PMGSY roads should make municipal councillors blush. Even the hated ‘paver blocks’ in Mumbai are not bad when used properly. The top of the critical Zojila Pass near Drass, Ladakh is lined with such paver blocks, which sustain despite heavy traffic that includes vehicles equipped with road-chewing snow chains. However, while the urban renewal of Mumbai is great, that city, along with every other urban conglomeration, has to get its roads in order.

And make no mistakes, given India’s climatic extremes, one should appreciate the civil engineers building roads in the country. Look at Western Europe right now. Road and rail infrastructure is sagging under climate change. Yet, in a country where temperature variations are extreme and vehicles have equally extreme axle loads. Sure, as someone who drives a lot, I have complaints, particularly about expansion joints on North Indian expressways. Although again, these expressways have to deal with surface temperatures as high as 75-80 degrees Celsius in summer and as low as -10 degrees Celsius in winter, which is pretty extreme. Then in some cases, there is poor traffic flow design, particularly in cities because the traffic authorities just don’t have the necessary training. I’d honestly suggest city simulation games like Cities: Skylines for inspiration.

So cutting to the chase, the biggest problem with Indian roads and infrastructure is users—from queue-cutters at airport security lines to a litany of issues on Indian roads. Sure the ‘Cow-Mikazes’ (as I call bovines) on our highways will require immense political will to deal with. But one cannot blame cows for other senseless things on the road. For one, governments and police happily allow far too many—and different—classes of vehicles to operate on major arterial roads. Some of these are of questionable legality, like repurposed old motorcycles and scooters that become goods carriers.

Citizens must take onus

Then there’s us, people who will happily travel down the wrong way to save a few minutes, even if it imperils the lives of others. We also take our lives into our own hands by not wearing seatbelts or helmets and endanger not just our lives, but those of our children as well by not strapping them in child seats. Instead, we keep them on our laps while driving or seated in the front seat and then share those pictures and videos on social media because they are ‘cute’.

We are in the middle of an incredible infrastructure-building spree. The US and Europe had that boom in the 1950s and 1960s, and Japan and South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s. But it was China whose physical infrastructure in the last two decades has wowed the most.

And now, it is India’s turn to take China’s place. Projects like the 19-kilometre-long Zojila tunnel through the Himalayas will be world-class because, as we all know very well, it is difficult to dig tunnels in the Himalayas. I saw the work on this tunnel continue despite heavy snowfall a few days prior. But if we truly enjoy world-class—and often world-leading— infrastructure, we, the citizens of this country and users of this infrastructure also need to up our game and be more responsible. ‘Chalta Hai’ (letting things be) will no longer work.
 
(theprint, nov.26)
image-2-2.png

Modi govt moves with Arunachal Frontier Highway, among India’s ‘toughest’ projects yet, China in mind​

The 2,000 km-long highway will be of strategic importance to military. Same equipment used on other side of LAC being deployed to carry out work on tough terrain, say officials.​


New Delhi: After seven decades of dithering on establishing border connectivity in the Northeast, India has initiated a massive infrastructure building, the showpiece of which is the Arunachal Frontier Highway, one of the country’s biggest and toughest projects.

While sources in the defence establishment and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) refused to get into specific timelines for the project, they said that this is a “strategic project which is being sped up”.

Work on the project has already started in certain sections with state-of-art equipment deployed to fast track the whole process, they added.

The project, which was objected to by China in the past, is a 2,000-km long road that follows the McMahon Line. The road will begin from Mago in Arunachal Pradesh, adjacent to Bhutan, and pass through Tawang, Upper Subansiri, Tuting, Mechuka, Upper Siang, Debang Valley, Desali, Chaglagam, Kibithu, Dong, before ending at Vijayanagar near the Myanmar border.

Covering the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC) adjacent to Arunachal Pradesh, this project will cost at least Rs 40,000 crore. Sources described it as “one of India’s biggest and toughest” road building projects.

With this project, Arunachal Pradesh will get three national highways — the Frontier Highway, the Trans-Arunachal Highway and the East-West Industrial Corridor Highway.

Six vertical and diagonal inter highway corridors totalling 2,178 km will be built to provide missing inter-connectivity between the three highways as well as to provide faster access to border areas.

The corridors include the 402 km-long Thelamara-Tawang-Nelia Highway, the 391 km-long Itakhola-Pakke-Kessang-Seppa-Parsi Parlo Highway, the 285 km-long Gogamukh-Taliha-Tato Highway, the 398 km-long Akajan-Jorging-Pango Highway, the 298 km-long Pasighat-Bishing Highway and the 404 km-long Kanubari-Longding Highway.

Sources said the Arunachal Frontier Highway will be a huge capability jump for the military since it will allow seamless and faster movement of both men and equipment to the border as and when needed for induction and de-induction.

The project was pushed by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju in 2014, when he was the Minister of State for Home and looking after border affairs. That same year, the Home Ministry set the ball rolling for the project by asking the MoRTH to prepare a detailed project report.

China had raised objections to the project in 2014 itself after it came across reports that the proposal got preliminary nod from the Prime Minister’s Office. “Before the border problem is solved, we hope the Indian side will not take any action that could further complicate the relevant issue, so as to preserve the current situation of peace and stability in the border area,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei had said.

Sources said the project is being implemented by multiple agencies in close coordination with each including the Border Roads Organisation, the MoRTH and other agencies.

Faced with an assertive China, India has been carrying out a massive infrastructure push in the Northeast with a major focus on Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, fast tracking work on a number of bridges that can transport heavy equipment to tunnels, highways and feeder roads right up to the LAC.

A large number of specialised and state-of-art road and tunneling equipment were inducted with efforts being made to match the speed at which the Chinese are building infrastructure on their side, sources said.

“The problem at our end is that terrain is tougher with several places needing tunneling unlike the Chinese who have a flatter terrain on their side of the LAC. However, we now have the same equipment that the Chinese have,” one of the sources said.

Of the total highway projects worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore announced by the Centre for the Northeast earlier this month, Arunachal Pradesh had got the lion’s share of works amounting to Rs 44,000 crore.

Talking about the proposed highway, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu had Monday said, “1962 was history and will never be repeated ever. In 1962, the scenario was very different. Infrastructure in the region was very poor. Despite that the Indian Army fought bravely and sacrificed thousands of lives to protect the motherland. But today, we are not what we were in 1962.”

Meanwhile, asked about the development of infrastructure in Sikkim post 2017 Doklam standoff, sources refused to get into details but informed that unlike earlier, Indian troops now have three paved access roads directly to the area.

Major capability jump for military

Sources said that the proposed highway along with other ongoing projects will provide a huge boost to the Army’s capability to move from one valley to another.

Incidentally, almost all military exercise in the Northeast focuses on inter-valley movement of troops and equipment.

The armed forces will get their first major boost when the 2.535 km-long Sela tunnel — the world’s longest bi-lane tunnel at an altitude above 13,000 ft once completed — is inaugurated in January next year, providing all-weather connectivity to Tawang.

At present, the Army and the civilians use the Balipara-Chariduar Road (Assam) to reach Arunachal’s Tawang since the Sela pass is shut down in winters.

This strategic tunnel along with Nechiphu Tunnel on the 317 km-long Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) road that leads to West Kameng and Tawang districts of Arunachal Pradesh will ensure that both defence and private vehicles have all-year mobility.

As reported earlier, the Sela Tunnel project, which has main and escape tunnels that are 1,555 m-long each, besides a shorter tunnel of 980 m and about 1.2 km of road, will ensure that the Chinese are not able to monitor traffic movement in the area. The Sela Pass is currently visible to the Chinese.

The tunnels are designed in such a way that all army equipment, including tanks and Vajra howitzers, can pass through them, away from the prying eyes of the Chinese as well as cutting down travel time with access throughout the year. /end
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bali78