Uttar Pradesh to get highway network soon

Lucknow, July 9 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh will now have four state highways and road connectivity projects would be taken up with priority to stimulate industrial growth and socio-economic development, officials said.

These include 206-km long Delhi-Saharanpur highway, 115-km long Varanasi-Shakti Nagar highway, 88-km long Meerut-Karnal highway, and 54-km long Bareilly-Almora highway.

A new State Highways Development Programme (SHDP), dedicated to identifying and preparing a prioritised list of road projects to be undertaken across the state, will also be launched, an official informed.

A working group, headed by the Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC), would soon come up with a strategy on funding of strip development for widening of state highways.

The decisions, crucial to development of road infrastructure, were taken by Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani while reviewing the projects of Uttar Pradesh State Highways Authority (UPSHA) and Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) recently.

Usmani has also issued directions to study and prepare an objective list of the rational and need-based identifiable road projects, under a new exercise of SHDP on the basis of priority. After the approval of which, the UPSHA would start process of implementation.

He directed that the projects, for which concession agreements have been signed, should be implemented by December 2014.

Usmani said: "Officials should visit other states to study successful road building models for efficient execution and funding of these projects."

IIDC Anil K. Gupta said: "Widening and extension of state highways should be based on traffic volume and viability study of projects."

"Connectivity is one of the critical components for socio-economic development and industrial growth and therefore government is taking up road projects on priority," he added.

UPSHA CEO, Mukul Singhal, informed that apart from four state highways, for which developers have been already selected, a request for qualification (RFP) has been invited for 162-km long Lucknow-Hardoi-Shahjahanpur and 166-km long Basti-Mehndawal-Tamkuhi highways.

Issues relating to feasibility, funding, time lines, maintenance and better bid and tender documents of highway projects were also discussed.