State told to speed up highway process

DELHI, NOV 10
Minister of State for Road Transport RPN Singh on Wednesday said his ministry has requested the Goa Government at the highest level to expedite the land acquisition for upgradation and widening of National Highway-17 and NH-4A.
The NH-17 widening into four lanes requires acquisition of 310.10 hactares of land, notification for which has been already published, the minister said, pointing out that this Rs 1,872-crore project is proposed to be completed in 36 months and a letter of acceptance for it has been issued on May 20.
The contract of the Rs 471-crore projects for upgrading NH-4A has been awarded and the agreement has been also signed on February 19, he added.
The minister further informed that Goa has requested for reduction of Right of Way (ROW) for National Highways to 45 m in identified stretches in Urban area/patches of thickly and densely populated area.
Panjim reporter adds: The State government on Wednesday decided to go ahead with the fresh alignment for the widening of NH-4A prepared by the high-level committee, which has suggested reducing the width to 35 meters in thickly populated areas and also proposed bypasses at some places.
However, this has had no mention in Singh’s reply in the Rajya Sabha.
When contacted PWD officials told Herald that the government will make a formally request to the Centre in next few days since the decision was taken only yesterday.
“The recommendation of the committee will be accepted in toto and we will not make any further changes,” an official in PWD told Herald.