WB-aided road project launch on Oct. 11

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, OCT. 3. A World Bank-assisted project to improve and upgrade State highways, the first of its kind in the country, will be implemented from October 11.

The project, which was proposed two years ago, was awaiting the clearance of a loan application by the World Bank. It will be completed in two phases over five years. Of the nearly 10,000 km. of State highways, the project will cover 2,300 km. of highways, and the Karnataka Road Development Corporation (KRDC) will take up work on the rest.

The Minister for Public Works, Mr. Dharam Singh, told presspersons here on Wednesday that the implementation of the World Bank-assisted project would also help improve the functioning of the PWD. Of the Rs. 2,030.20-crore project, the share of the Government would be Rs. 395 crores (20 per cent) and that of the World Bank Rs. 1,635 crores, he said.

He said that in the first phase of the project, Rs. 393 crores would be spent on upgrading roads and Rs. 840 crores on improving their quality. Certain stretches of State highways would be upgraded as per the guidelines of the Indian Road Congress and the Ministry of Surface Transport. Under the programme to improve quality, road surface would be improved to the standards prescribed by the Indian Road Congress, he added.

Second phase, next Oct.: The second phase of the project would also involve upgrading of roads and improvement of road quality. While the projects in the first phase would begin on October 11, the tentative date for the start of the second phase was October next year. The process of preparing tenders for the second phase had begun. Apart from road improvement work, the project also included the construction of nine bridges.

Mr. Singh and the representative of the consultant (Scott and Wilson) for the project, Mr. Venkat, said that for upgrading roads, Rs. 1 crore per km. would be spent, and Rs. 35 lakhs per km. for improving quality. State highways would be so designed as to last 25 years. The contractors would have to maintain the roads assigned to them for three years. Ninety per cent of the payment would be made on completion of work, and the balance on the expiry of the three-year maintenance agreement.

The ``metal top'' (black top) of the State highways would have a standard width of seven metres compared with four or five metres at present. One metre on either side of a road would also be metalled to allow overtaking of vehicles. An additional one metre would be earmarked on either side as road shoulder. Under the project, Rs. 3 lakhs per km. would be spent on shifting electricity poles, water supply lines, and optic fibre cables. Community assets such as shelters for bus commuters, hand pumps, places of worship, and buildings belonging to public institutions would be shifted. Tenders had been floated under the norms of national and international competitive bidding.

Workshop on project: Mr. Singh said that a two-day ``pre-launch'' workshop on the project would be held in Bangalore on October 5 and 6. The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, would inaugurate the programme which would be attended by experts from the World Bank and several other international and national organisations concerned with road development.

The minister said the Government was keen on learning from the experience of others, particularly State governments which had obtained World Bank loans for road projects. Representatives of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Mizoram, would attend the workshop.

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