Karnataka to get its first greenfield highway

KALABURAGI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has floated tenders for the development of a six-lane access controlled greenfield highway from Badadal village in Kalaburagi district, to Singnodi in Raichur district, a total distance of 177 km. This will be the first access controlled highway in the state, and first six-lane highway in North Karnataka. The Union government is spending about Rs 25 crore per km for this highway.However, Kalaburagi is not part of this highway network.
As per documents available with TOI, Sandeep Agrawal, general manager (tech), NHAI, New Delhi, has finalised four packages of tenders for 203.1 km of highways from Akkalkot in Maharashtra to Singnodi in Raichur district. Out of 4 packages, three packages, 2, 3 and 4, covering a distance of 177 km, are in Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Raichur districts of Karnataka, while package-1 falls in Maharashtra.
Sunil Kulkarni, president, Kalyana Karnataka Grahakara Vedike, termed it as a good development, as the fastest and shortest highway connects the Kalyana Karnataka region with Bengaluru and Mumbai. “It will also make Chennai, Surat, Tirupati, Pune and other cities closer to the region. The only setback is that Kalaburagi will not be a part of this highway network, which is a distance of about 35 km. However, we hope that this distance will be filled by the industrial corridor in the coming years,” he added.
Terming the tender document a perfect one, he said that the NHAI has made it a model document for any mega project. “As per the document, this highway will get seven double trumpets in Karnataka at Ganagapur, Jewargi, Sirwal, Khanapur, Gugal, Deosugur and at the Telangana border. As it prohibits two-wheelers and unauthorised access, it’s expected to be on par with highways of the United States, or any other developed country of the world,” he said.
Sources in the NHAI Bengaluru regional office said that the proposed highway is numbered as NH-150C, and its construction is expected to start in a year. “As the Bharatmala project is directly controlled by Delhi, we do not have much information about it,” they added.
Tenders called currently
* Badabal village till Maradagi S Andola in Kalaburagi District -71km, tenders called for Rs 1,769 crore (Km 26 to 97)
* Maradgi S Andola till Baswantpur in Yadgir district- 65.5 km tenders called for Rs 1,606 crore (Km 97 to 162.5)
* Baswantpur till Singnodi in Raichur district- 40.6 km tenders called for Rs 1,169 crore (Km 162.5 to 203.1)
About Bharatmala Pariyojana
Bharatmala Pariyojana, India’s largest infrastructure programme, was envisioned in 2017, to develop 34,800 km of National Highway corridors, connecting more than 600 districts in the country. This programme signalled a paradigm shift to corridor approach of infrastructure development. It focuses on development of 24,800 km of dedicated expressways, access-controlled economic corridors, and associated feeder routes, coastal and port connectivity and border and international connectivity corridors. In addition, 10,000 km of ongoing NHDP projects are envisioned as part of the overall programme which will cover a length of 34,800 km.
What is a greenfield highway?
Greenfield Expressways are designed to avoid inhabited areas and go through new alignments, to bring development to new areas, and to reduce land acquisition costs and construction timelines.
Gadkari to announce in Hubballi
Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari is expected to arrive in Hubballi in January, and to share more details of the project pertaining to Karnataka, said highly placed sources in NHAI, Delhi.