Work on ‘road on stills’ gets underway

Work on ‘road on stills’ gets underway
Deccan Herald

While driving on Hosur Road towards Electronic City, you’ll notice that among the works on projects that have already started almost overnight throughout the stretch...


While driving on Hosur Road towards Electronic City, you’ll notice that among the works on projects that have already started almost overnight throughout the stretch, those on the ‘Elevated Highway’ (EH) -- the “road on stills” -- have also begun in earnest.

After much ado (many were intrigued by the concept of a highway “on stilts”), the project is making progress with its ground work, taking care of the cumbersome aspects of road widening and shifting of electric and water lines, and such.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Project Director Manoj Kumar told Deccan Herald that the EH would start to ‘surface’ by November. The deadline for the project’s completion is July 2008. EH, which provides as many as 14 lanes in all (10 lanes below and four lanes on it), will allow a vehicle user to reach Electronic City from the Central Silk Board junction in ten minutes flat, as against the one hour it takes now.


“The final notification has been issued to all land owners,” he said while an enquiry into ownership claims will be held on September 18, 19 and 20. Over 16 hectares of land had been acquired by the NHAI for the 10-km project.

NHAI claims that this is one-of-a-kind project as, apart from provisions of service roads and underpasses, the Authority will also provide for eight bus byes and two Lay byes. The former will be built on either side of the road, and the latter on the EH will house two cranes, ready to be pressed into service in the event of accidents.

According to Parvateesam, Manager (Tech) of the Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS), the two cranes will be maintained by the concessionaire of the project, “who will make certain that accidents don’t disrupt traffic for long”.

Electronic call boxes (ECBs) will also be provided every few kms. “If a vehicle breaks down, the vehicle user can immediately call for help via the ECBs. The concessionaire will ensure that the vehicle is towed out of the traffic,” he said.

“We will also be installing CCTVs to monitor movement both on the ground and on the EH,” he said, and added that two highway patrol vehicles, to operate all through the day, would ensure easy movement of traffic at all times.

All these services come at a price. As a total of Rs 760 crore will be spent on the project, NHAI hopes to “recover it and more” in the years to come. An average of Rs 18 lakh is expected to be collected daily by NHAI through user charges, and three Toll Plazas are being built for this purpose.



DETAILS OF USER CHARGES

Type of vehicle At-grade Elevated

section * section

Two wheelers 0 10

Car 15 25

Mini-bus 25 35

Bus 50 70

Light commercial 25 35

vehicles (LCVs)

Trucks 50 70

Earth-moving equipment 150 140

and heavy construction

machinery

* The At-grade level charges are for only those who cross the Karnataka border.



A NICE WAY OF GETTING OVER HURDLES

The elevated highway (EH) project was announced by the Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways on September 27, 2004, contract(s) for which were expected to be awarded by March 31, 2005.

However, the launch of the project got delayed due to litigation initiated by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE), which moved the High Court as NHAI had asked NICE to modify its earlier project, to avoid ‘clashing’ of the two projects. After much talk, both entities agreed to compromise.

The compromise means the EH could “climb over” the NICE flyover, thereby avoiding demolition of the bridge, whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 24, 2006.

The EH will be built 5.5 mts high from ground level, and once it reaches the NICE bridge, it will gradually fly over it, at 11 mts from ground level, to resume its 5.5 mts formula once the ‘hop’ is made.