New Delhi: The Network Planning Group (NPG), in its meeting on Wednesday, saw deliberations on a four-lane, access-controlled greenfield highway as part of the Nagpur-Vijaywada corridor and new rail connectivity projects connecting Barejadi Nandej to Sanand in Gujarat, and Barbil, Barsuan and Nayagrah in Odisha.
Chaired by the Special Secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the meeting saw active participation of senior officials from key member ministries and departments.
Senior officials from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that the four-lane, access-controlled greenfield highway, covering a distance of 306 kms, will connect Mancherial to Vijawada. The project proposed will improve connectivity to 21 economic nodes such as Mega Food Parks, Fishing Seafood Clusters, Pharma and Medical Clusters, SEZs and Textile Clusters across the 11 districts and more than 27 social nodes across 3 states.
The proposed alignment of the highway is also estimated to increase average speed from 40 kmph to 80 kmph, reduce travel time from 17 hours to 8 hours and create 11.9 crore employment opportunities after completion.
During the deliberations of the Barejadi Nandej to Sanand railway project, it was observed by the NPG that the Ahmedabad Station has been one of the busiest stations on the Western Railway Corridor for freight movement between the Viramgam-Sabaramati-Ahmedabad-Geratpur sections. Therefore to achieve overall operational efficiency, the construction of a 4th line connecting it was felt essential.
During the meeting, senior officials from the Ministry of Railways said that the proposed Barbil-Barsuan-Nayagarh Railway line, covering a distance of 181 km, will connect major iron mines in the region and boost trade in steel plans of eastern India. The proposed alignment will see 15 new stations being built in the vicinity of major mining sites such as Sundergarh and Keonjhar. With connectivity to major rail networks such as Tata, Dhamra, Bokaro and eastern ports such as Visakhapatnam and Paradip, it is estimated that the project will see an increase of about 37 per cent traffic in the first 5 years itself.
All three projects were evaluated by the NPG and recommended for implementation with certain suggestions to address last mile connectivity and achieve the right multimodal logistics share. These include intermodal infrastructure, creation of multi-modal logistics park facilities and other terminal infrastructure related to railways and roadways.
–IANS