Indian Roads Thread

[Karthik S]

If you look at clearance below, you can see it is a good candidate for a suspension bridge.

[Singha]

CM Yogi Adityanath approves construction of the ganga expressway connecting Meerut to Allahabad 600km.
Delhi and Meerut already have a expressway in construction which should be all done in a year. near delhi, it is 14 lanes to handle traffic.

IBN

The chief minister, who presided over the meeting, told reporters that the Cabinet gave its approval for the construction of the 600 km expressway, which will be the longest expressway in the world.


It will start from Meerut and touch Amroha, Bulandshahr, Badaun, Shahjahanpur ,Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh before reaching Allahabad, he said.


This expressway will require 6,556 hectares of land and it will be access-controlled and four-lane expandable to six lanes, Adityanath said, adding the estimated cost of this project will be around R 36,000 crores.

[Supratik]

How Lavato is revolutionizing highway toilet experience in India.

https://swarajyamag.com/business/in-the ... ry-service

[Mollick.R]

CM Yogi Adityanath approves construction of the ganga expressway connecting Meerut to Allahabad Prayagraj 600km. Delhi and Meerut already have a expressway in construction which should be all done in a year.

[Supratik]

Delhi-Saharanpur expressway 12 lane (3M + 3S) AV from PIB.

https://youtu.be/Z7UjIvTD1Es

[Singha]

i fully believe the claim that NCR will soon be a 100 million "country" soon. they have done good job integrating all neighbouring states into the economic & transport ecosystem and place continues to attract migrants as a job creating +ve hub.
its already 50 mil

haridwar imo can be a strong domestic airport and save the 6 hr journey via meerut and muzzafarnagar. it attracts hordes from all over india.
dehra dun airport can be enlarged. between tourists and pilgrims these two places are quite viable. if I have no business in dilli but want to trek or visit himalaya for pilgrimage would rather fly there via dilli than waste time negotiating dilli city. i hope to see shoals of silver painted ATR72 types streaming to these places.

[Supratik]

You can fly directly to Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport if you have connection from your city and do the himalayas.

[Supratik]

12 lane (3M + 3S) Faridabad bypass/expressway to start.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/weekl ... 22720.html

[Mollick.R]

X-post from railways thread....

Have seen this as Breaking News on 28th after CCEA meeting. Reservation issue of of J&K residents and this in principal approval of Bridge over River Brahmaputra between Dhubri (on North Bank, Assam) and Phulbari (On South Bank, Meghalaya) was the top decision taken on that meeting.

Due to Border tensions, was busy following those threads & forgot to post it here.
Excellent decision, hope construction progresses smoothly and finishes on time.
(adds to another reason we need NAMO back for that )

Press Information Bureau
Government of India //Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)// 28-February-2019 22:41 IST
Cabinet approves construction of four lane bridge including approaches over River Brahmaputra between Dhubri (on North Bank, Assam) and Phulbari (On South Bank, Meghalaya) on NH-127B with loan assistance from JICA

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister today approved construction of four lane bridge including approaches over river Brahmaputra between Dhubri on North Bank and Phulbari on South Bank on NH-127 B in the State of Assam/Meghalaya. The total length of the bridge will be 19.282 km.

The bridge will be built under the scheme of North-East Road Network Connectivity Project Phase-03’ under loan assistance with JICA at the civil construction cost of Rs.3548 crore and total capital cost of Rs.4997.04 crore including the cost of Rs.55.68 crore towards the cost of land acquisition, resettlement & rehabilitation and other pre construction activities. The completion of the project will take approximately six years’ period.

The project has strategic and socio-economic importance. The project shall be an instrument for the development of the most economically backward districts in the states of North East. The construction of this bridge project over river Brahmaputra will save huge travel distance from 205.3 km to only 19.282 km and saving in time of five hours to 20 minutes between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya. This alignment will further augment the transport network for the region by providing the shortest link between the western regions of Meghalaya as well as Barak valley region of Assam and southern states in NE namely Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura and the rest of the country, including the ports of Kolkata

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease. ... lid=189099

[Mollick.R]

X-post from railways thread....
Another few links on same subject (Centre Approves 4-Lane Bridge over Brahmaputra), with some additional details....

Business Standard
Cabinet approves Dhubri - Phulbari four lane bridge construction over River Brahmaputra
Capital Market Last Updated at March 1, 2019 13:18 IST

https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-cm/cabinet-approves-dhubri-phulbari-four-lane-bridge-construction-over-river-brahmaputra-119030100396_1.html

North east live tv.com
Cabinet approves construction of Dhubri – Phulbari four lane bridge over river Brahmaputra

https://northeastlivetv.com/2019/03/01/cabinet-approves-construction-of-dhubri-phulbari-four-lane-bridge-over-river-brahmaputra/

Centre Approves 4-Lane Bridge over Brahmaputra
G PLUS NEWS | MARCH 01, 2019 13:55 HRS

GUWAHATI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a four-lane bridge over river Brahmaputra between Dhubri (on the North Bank) and Phulbari (on South Bank) on February 28.

The total length of the bridge will be 19.282 km, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after by the CCEA meeting.

The proposed four-lane bridge will connect the old town of Dhubri in Assam with the village of Phulbari in Meghalaya and shorten a huge amount of travel time.

[b]Currently, those who travel across these states either take the Naranarayan bridge which is a huge inconvenience as it is 60 km upstream or, alternatively, row across the river in small boats which again takes about two and a half hours.

It is to be mentioned that the Dhubri District Administration has already begun the process of land acquisition for construction of roads to accommodate India’s longest river bridge over the Brahmaputra.

Currently, the longest river bridge in India is at 9.15 km, is the Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Assam which became functional in 2017.

https://www.guwahatiplus.com/daily-news/centre-approves-4-lane-bridge-over-brahmaputra

[UlanBatori]

Day of Mourning in Ulan Bator: 300 yaks die of starvation

Read the quote in there: they could not helo-drop food due to bad seather, but the Conservationist bowbows are barking about "road construction activity" and blaming that!!!!!!! If they had any roads someone could get up there with a tractor and snowmobiles and supply food, snow or no snow.

[Kakkaji]

This is how UPA Government's sins are impacting development:

NHAI tweaks strategy for Rs 3 trillion projects under Bharatmala scheme

High land acquisition costs have forced the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to tweak its strategy for project implementation. The NHAI has decided to consider only those projects that require minimal land acquisition as it finalises highway contracts worth about Rs 3 trillion under the Bharatmala scheme.

The reason for shifting priority is land compensation costs, which increased after the new Act — the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR) — came into being in January 2014. Before the Act, the land acquisition cost made up 10 per cent of a project’s cost. This has now risen to 30-40 per cent.

[JTull]

Fair compensation is important, but land acquisition should also be easier. Influence of local politicians should be completely nullified.

[Rishirishi]

Fair compensation is important, but land acquisition should also be easier. Influence of local politicians should be completely nullified.

Land is used as a place to park black money. This inflates the value of land and have make poor farmers rich. The downside is that economic activity becomes a problem. All land intensive activity is suffering from the high land costs.

[CalvinH]

This is how UPA Government's sins are impacting development:

NHAI tweaks strategy for Rs 3 trillion projects under Bharatmala scheme

High land acquisition costs have forced the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to tweak its strategy for project implementation. The NHAI has decided to consider only those projects that require minimal land acquisition as it finalises highway contracts worth about Rs 3 trillion under the Bharatmala scheme.

The reason for shifting priority is land compensation costs, which increased after the new Act — the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR) — came into being in January 2014. Before the Act, the land acquisition cost made up 10 per cent of a project’s cost. This has now risen to 30-40 per cent.

One of the way to avoid high land costs is to seek a completely different alignment for the expressways with branches connecting it to the older highways. This will also speed up development in areas that were not along the older highways.

Expressways such as Delhi Mumbai should stay outside the main cities on the way with the city government paying for the connectivity between the city and the highway.

[Mollick.R]

Good article about actual on ground effects of Good Quality Highways + GST + FASTAG.............
We are witnessing phase-2 of silent logistic revolution (counting GQ by AVB as phase-1).

GST on the Highway
N Madhavan | Updated on June 04, 2019 Published on June 03, 2019

Hopping on to a truck carrying consumer durables from Sriperumbudur to Bhiwandi, N Madhavan discovers how GST, despite hiccups, has transformed goods movement on India’s southern highways
The wait was frustrating. The truck, which had entered the factory of a consumer durables company near Sriperumbudur to load the wares, emerged after almost 20 hours. It was 7.40 pm on May 1, Wednesday, when this writer boarded the truck. Its destination: Bhiwandi in Maharashtra.

Our idea was to experience, first-hand, the changes in road transportation of goods after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the billions invested in overhauling the country’s road infrastructure. In the process, has the lot of the drivers — who are critical in ensuring that the wheels of the economy keep moving — changed for the better over the years? The 1,288-km ride, we hoped, could reveal a lot about the transformation in road transportation that policymakers keep parroting about, or the lack of it.

“Documentation took a long time,” said Ram* in a matter-of-fact manner. This lean-built 23-year-old from Maharashtra’s Beed district looked the least like typical truck drivers. “Such delays are common. Companies do not really care about grounding a truck for hours together,” he added in Hindi that had strains of Marathi.

All doubts about his inexperience and driving capabilities vanished as he manoeuvred the truck, an Ashok Leyland Tusker Super 2514 H, with absolute ease. For a nine-year-old vehicle, the truck’s pick-up was unusually good and Ram immediately explained that it was more due to the lower payload weight. The 174 air-conditioners and 63 refrigerators it carried weighed less than five tonnes as against its capacity of 14 tonnes.

As the truck eased past the silk town of Kanchipuram, one could not help but notice the sparseness of the truck’s cabin. Two seats and a long bench behind the seats with a Rexine cushion is all it had. With little or no insulation from the engine, the cabin was fast heating up.

Nag, Ram’s brother-in-law who also doubles up as a support staff, pointed to an opening between the two windscreens. “That is our air-conditioning,” he said. The air that blew into the cabin when the truck was in motion ensured that the heat was not felt. It was a different story when the truck stopped.

About an hour into the drive Ram took a right turn at Ranipet, an industrial town. “We prefer the Chittoor route as there are fewer toll plazas than the Krishnagiri route,” he explained. The difference will be as much as ₹800, he said — a reasonable saving, considering that total toll charges for the entire trip were to the tune of ₹6,500.

Checks and balances
The first checkpost to come up was that of Tamil Nadu (TN) before the truck entered Andhra Pradesh (AP). There were no officials in the middle of the road halting the vehicles. From the side a torch was shone and a whistle blown as the truck passed. Ram acted as if he did not hear it and the truck went through. He kept looking at the rear-view mirror for a while, though.

“Post GST, officials try to stop vehicles more discreetly. They show the torch and/or blow the whistle. If you stop they will take ₹500 even if your documentation is perfect,” he explained. By not stopping he took a risk, he said. “If they chase the truck and stop us, I will be forced to pay a bribe of ₹2,000 and the truck will be halted for many hours,” he added. That explained his intense focus on the rear-view mirror as we passed the checkpost.

Ram explained that prior to GST there were two checkposts on each State border. One was that of sales tax and the other, the Regional Transport Office (RTO). The sales tax checkposts have disappeared but the RTO ones remain. “It is the RTO officials who are notorious. Sales tax officials would let us go if the invoices and other documentation are correct but RTO officials will find some reason to extract a bribe, like, driver not in uniform, the truck has an air horn or does not have a first-aid box, and so on,” he explained.

Within minutes of crossing the TN checkpost, another barrier emerged, this time it was AP’s checkpost. Again a whistle was blown but Ram yelled ‘empty load’ and kept driving. AP RTO officials, busy with other trucks they had stopped, let the truck go. “The story is the same here too. If you stop you will end up paying ₹300 or so as a bribe,” he said.

It was almost midnight when the truck crossed Chittoor and headed towards Kolar. The journey was bumpy and slow as four-laning of the highway was in progress. It was 1.20 am when the truck crossed the AP border (Ram yet again deftly dodged AP RTO officials) and entered Karnataka.

The scene at the Karnataka checkpost was different. There were no officials in sight. Ram parked the truck and headed into the RTO office some distance away, surprisingly without any documents. “In Karnataka it is very simple. Just pay ₹200 per truck while entering and exiting, they let you through. Unless they are suspicious, they do not ask for documents or inspect the vehicle,” he explained. In all, it took just about 10 minutes.

Night awaits
As the truck headed towards Bengaluru, Ram announced that he was going to drive through the night. “I rested well while waiting for the documentation to be ready at the factory,” he said. He had set his eyes on the incentive of ₹1,700 he will get if he reaches the goods to Bhiwandi within 48 hours.

There was another motivation too. This was his last trip this season. He and Nag were heading home to their village Therla. “It is five months since we came from the village. Ram is missing his daughter who will be a year-old soon,” Nag said. The plan was to reach Bhiwandi by Friday (May 3), offload the goods and reach their village, which is 35 km from Beed town, by Saturday.

It was almost 4 am when the truck entered Bengaluru. The Nelamangala Toll plaza that soon came up was packed with trucks. Still it took just about 10 minutes, by far the longest in the trip, to pass through, thanks to FASTag. In fact, most of the toll plazas were a breeze taking less than a minute or two. This flies against the constant complaints by truck operators about the time lost in toll plazas. “They should try using FASTag,” quipped Ram.

As the sun ushered in Thursday, the truck had left Bengaluru and Tumakuru behind and was heading towards Chitradurga, a town famous for its fort. The roads got more undulated here. Before long you notice Ram shifting the gear to neutral when the road dips, allowing gravity to power his vehicle. “I do that to save fuel. It is through these savings that I earn my income,” he explained. An all-new remuneration model was revealed.

Ram, being a part-time driver (he tends to his family’s fields during the monsoon period between May and October), is not paid a salary. His income comes from savings in fuel, incentives and whatever he saves from the ₹3,000 his employer pays for food and bribes. “I am given 400 litres for each way. How much of diesel I save at the end of the return trip is paid to me in cash,” he said. This time he had managed to save 50 litres (both ways). That got him ₹3,500. “I end up making, in all, ₹12,000 comfortably for every return trip,” he added. But his ability to realise more income is hampered by the fact that he gets to make just two or three round trips in a month. A clear case of demand-supply mis-match (too many trucks chasing too few a load).

As the truck drove past Davangere, Hubballi (formerly Hubli) and Dharwad, Ram showed no sign of tiredness. He has been on the road continuously for over 20 hours but for brief stops for tea and food. The terrain got tough as Belagavi (formerly Belgaum) approached. Trucks were inching their way ahead on the steep ghat road. Ram finally announced, to everyone’s relief, that he will halt for the night after Kolhapur.

Crossing into Maharashtra was a breeze but the roads were crowded as locals used the highway to commute. It was 9 pm on Thursday (May 2) when Ram halted at Karmani, after a 26-hour ride, for a night’s rest.

A long journey
Most drivers end up sleeping under their truck. “No one cares to offer us decent facilities,” rued Ram. That is a valid statement. Companies invest hundreds of crores to build manufacturing facilities but they do not create decent facilities for truck drivers to rest and freshen up inside the factory. After all, they entrust the drivers with goods worth many crores. Salaries are low, cabin conditions are bad and most importantly, there is no value for their time. They need to push themselves very hard to make money.

“The irony is that the demand-supply equation does not work here,” said Ram adding “when there is a shortage of drivers, the condition of the existing lot should ideally improve but that is not the case.”

It is an early start next day (May 3). Within hours, Satara and Pune are behind as the truck heads towards Mumbai on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Near Navi Mumbai, Ram takes a right turn to enter the Mumbra bypass. “We used to spend a lot of time at the checkpost outside Mumbai due to Octroi. Not any more,” he said. A traffic snarl and a stop by police (the truck had a Karnataka registration) later, the truck reaches Bhiwandi by 2.15 pm.

It took Ram just 42.35 hours to cover 1,288 km. In the days before GST and before India’s highways were the four-lane beauties they are today, it would have taken about four days to cover the distance.Though some issues remain, the flow of goods along Indian highways has definitely become smoother and faster.

*Name changed to protect identity of the person

Published on June 03, 2019

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-file/gst-reforms-smoothen-goods-transport-on-indian-highways/article27428804.ece

[nandakumar]

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/sp ... 428804.ece
A very nice write up on the post GST environment for road transport.

[Mollick.R]

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-file/gst-reforms-smoothen-goods-transport-on-indian-highways/article27428804.ece
A very nice write up on the post GST environment for road transport.

just posted same

[nandakumar]

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-file/gst-reforms-smoothen-goods-transport-on-indian-highways/article27428804.ece
A very nice write up on the post GST environment for road transport.

just posted same

I meant to endorse your posted link! But ended up posting it afresh.

[Supratik]

Why are RTO checkposts there except to collect bribes? What can be done to get rid of them?

[nandakumar]

Why are RTO checkposts there except to collect bribes? What can be done to get rid of them?

Well, the ministers in question have collected their upfront payments for the posting . Now the entrepreneur (the RTO in question) who has invested his risk capital needs to recover his risk capital. Else there will be what the economists would describe as "market failure"!

[Supratik]

No I meant what can be done to remove RTO checkposts. A source of corruption. Haven't seen them in the west. IMO not necessary. If it is a state issue why are BJP govts not removing it?

[Suraj]

The UP expressway building surge is not getting enough attention in this thread. I wonder if some, especially a local with a better feel of the transportation linkages of the state, can please track this in more detail:
Yogi plans expressway to every region of UP by 2022

The Uttar Pradesh government is focusing on completing several expressways before the next assembly elections in 2022. In 2017, the election pitch of the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav centred around Agra-Lucknow Taj expressway.

Similarly, in 2007 the then chief minister Mayawati’s achievement was Yamuna Expressway. The Yogi Aditya Nath government is working on four large projects which could be the highlight of his government before elections in 2022. First project on the priority list is the Purvanchal Expressway, a 341 km long expressway from Lucknow to Ghazipur, passing through Amethi, Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Azamgarh and Mau.

“We are targeting to open the main carriageway for public by August 2020,” says Awanish Awasthi. There would be 89-km link way on the expressway to connect it to Gorakhpur for which E-bids would be announced soon. Another project on the line is Bundelkhand expressway which would connect the backward districts of Bundelkhand such as Banda, Hamirpur, Jalaun to Agra Lucknow expressway in Etawah.

Around 79 per cent land acquisition has been completed for this 296 Km expressway and e-bids are going to take place in the current month. Currently the target is to complete the project by 2021. On January 29 this year, Nath announced Ganga Expressway from Meerut in West UP to Prayagraj.

The 600 KM expressway will connect districts such as Meerut, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Sambhal, Badaun, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh to Prayagraj. The survey for the project is slated to being in coming months.

[Supratik]

UP cities and towns except the region adjoining Delhi are a terrible mess. Expressways are good but Yogi needs to replicate what he has done in Prayagraj in other cities and towns.

[Suraj]

UP cities and towns except the region adjoining Delhi are a terrible mess. Expressways are good but Yogi needs to replicate what he has done in Prayagraj in other cities and towns.

Pray tell us what he's done in Prayagraj then

[Supratik]

I will post videos.

[Singha]

meantime in the land of the free ie blr,kerala, the state govt wanted to upgrade the heavily loaded mysore-blr SH from its current 4 lane, no bypasses at major towns state to a 6 lane road, with better shoulders and bypasses at some towns like ramanagaram, chennapatna, maddur, mandya though srirangapatna was not on radar to "save" on the cost of a new kaveri bridge.

anyway farmers are up in arms over land acquisition and a major road blocade the SH was being planned for today. the chaos can only be imagined as lakhs of vehicles go on that road daily and into coorg (madikeri) and towards TN (ooty conoor) also.

[Singha]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 718465.cms

protest seems not just against the new road but a wider one about land acquisition amendments.

[hnair]

LA issues are going to to the biggest issues for transport projects. In Kerala, I heard LA is fast approaching 70% project costs

Haven't traveled in Blr-Mys recently, but I remember they used to plonk these mini-mountains called speed-breakers on unsuspecting places. Over ne of these, I was once flying through air while riding pillion and as I achieved the zero-g Vomit_comet conditions, distinctly remember looking DOWN at the top of a bus that just landed in front of us. Fortunately not much injury, although my helmet visor cracked and few scratches.....

Really dont understand why the real-estate guys are not keen on opening up the vast spaces towards Mysore via a huge greenfield expressway?

[Aditya_V]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysuru/farmers-stir-to-disrupt-bengaluru-mysuru-traffic/articleshow/69718465.cms

protest seems not just against the new road but a wider one about land acquisition amendments.

Wasnt some of this land returned by HD Kumaraswamy saying it was excess of what was needed in his earlier Government

[Singha]

>> Really dont understand why the real-estate guys are not keen on opening up the vast spaces towards Mysore via a huge greenfield expressway?

mandya sugarcane farmers and gowdru clan took care of that. the NICE expway to mysore abruptly ends 2km from the ring road due to that issue.
it has no use and is not much maintained. annually some spirit of wipro , blr nebs challenge type 10k runs take that in that dead end loop so myself and members of the shadow quad like prasad, negi, picklu get a good look at it.

see the dead end here https://www.google.com/maps/@12.892126, ... 486,12.82z

blr-mysore and then mysore-ooty-conoor, mysore-bandipur-wayanad-kozhikode, mysore-nagarhole, mysore-madikeri , mysore-sravanabelagola-belur-halebid-chikmagalur collectively given domestic, foreign and local weekender traffic this is one of the top5 busiest tourist corridors in the land.
while delhi-agra and delhi-jaipur have soothing highways, we have nothing as usual.
well ok we have shatabdi express but not really is much used in mysore-blr stretch as it cannot use its full speed.