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Exciting - Karnataka's own NHDP !!

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Written By silkboard - 29 January, 2009

Infrastructure PPP Road Works KRDCL Roads Analysis highway Karnataka Transportation Infrastructure

KSHIPI am a bit surprised that mainstream media is yet to show serious interest in a PPP proposal to develop 66000 kms of roads in Karnataka. I first heard about this mega plan about two months ago, and finally, yesterday, half page ads appeared in newspapers with more details. Sounds exciting isn't it, promise of connectivity, and its about the whole state, not just Bengaluru. Call it Karnataka's own NHDP of sorts. Plan is to modernize roads, not build greenfield roadways. Highlights, here they are:

 

  • 10000 km of state highways & District Roads, and additional 12600 km of rural roads
  • Talk of a 2nd phase of 40000 km and a 3rd phase of 16000 km, no break up of phases that I know of yet
  • KRDCL will be the nodal agency
  • The promise is "all weather, access controlled ... road network with minimum 7 meter carriageway"
  • 4-6 lanes as approaches to urban settlements
  • By-passes and Ring Roads for urban areas with pop > 1 lakh
  • Service area every 50 km
  • PPP model, developer gets 1 acre of land for every 5 km of road
  • Despite this being a PPP, there is talk of tolls, and operationalizing a Karnataka Road Fund (KRF)
  • Highway patroling with GPS, vehicle breakdown & ambulance facilities
  • Service roads, underpasses for vehicles and pedestrians, cattle passes, barricades

Not mentioned in the ad, but Mr Arvind Jadhav had said that they would promise four lane connectivity to any location with Rs 100 Cr+ investment proposal Mr Jadhav' has also talked about focus on quick connectivity to Bangalore from sorrounding areas and cities (like Tumkur, Hassan, Shimoga) to help decongest the capital city.

All in all, the promises are just too exciting! Look forward to more details in the newspapers, and to hearing more from our ministers. There is a lot to digest, more comments after we understand this better.

Some quick questions I got right now are:

  • Will the state be building roads parallel to Existing National Highways. Meaning, will we see a new option besides NH4 for going to Hassan, or an alternative to NH48 for going to Mangalore?
  • What are the timelines for this project? No dates given for 1st and 2nd phases (there are phase 3 and 4 as well)
  • Around land acquisition - any new laws to do this amicably?
  • Any plans to speed up work on NHDP stretches in the state, progress has been slow when compared to Tamilnadu and even AP.
  • Will road stretches be split out by government (aka KRDCL) into smaller packages and handed to private parties? Or are private parties free to come forward and pick the stretches they want to work on?
  • Private parties will prefer working on high volume or high growth potential stretches, isn't it? What are the provisions to make sure the interest is spread evenly across big and small town connectivity?
  • Any thoughts on modernizing toll collection via wireless cards or cellphones? It will be best to force standards here at the outset itself?
  • Good fast roads will require a modern highway police - any plans to create a Karnataka Highway Police (KHP) like new body?
  • Who will be the planning authority for area around the roads? How will the state prevent "Ribbon Development" around the upgraded roads this making it difficult to control access to them?

Look forward to this exciting project, I mean it.

COMMENTS

Bad Roads! Bad Roads!

E.R. Ramachandran - 15 March, 2009 - 16:48

I went to Coonoor last week by KSRTC bus. Last year I drove with my friends to Bluff, Sivanasamudram. There are some facts which I have experienced:

1. When you cross over, even with eyes closed you can tell if you have entered Karnataka or leaving Karnataka State. The condition of roads will give you a jarring jab and from then on only god help your back!

2. The drive between Mysore and even Nanjanagud is the worst experience anybody can have. Letters to the Editor by well known town planners and Engineers are not even read by authorities.

3.The road between Gundlupet and Bandipur is so bad most of the vehicles had abandoned the so called road and were driving on the uneven mud track next to the tarred road on either side!

4.Two years back when we drove to Shivanasamudram for a Jalothsava festival, the driving experience put all of us out of action for a week.

5.Even the road between Mysore and the 'world-famous' KRS Brindavan Gardens is an apology of a road. Why is it so?Ask the present Lokayuktha and his predessor.They can give statistics who were supervising the roads etc..

As long as corruption is raging, either by PWD or Municipal corpn and the bosses for a variety of reasons turn a blind eye, nothing is going to change. I know for a fact that roads in Mysore almost always get funds TWICE a year- once from the city corporation and' special Dasara' funds from the C.M. Last year, like every year, the roads were' 'spruced up' before Dasara and the authorities claimed The civil Engineering Depts of NIE / SJCE had given 'satisfactory' certificates after inspection by them. The condition of roads were so bad, both these colleges went to the press claiming they were in no way connected with the roads that were spruced up! Unless, there is a sea- change in the attitude of the bosses and their colleagues, pride in their work , a modicum of honesty our roads will remain a mud-track!

sources for info

silkboard - 29 January, 2009 - 05:28

Want to add that information I posted above are based on two sources

  • Arvind Jadhav's talk to BCIC Infra Committee back in December
  • Half page ad in Business-Standard, Jan 27, Bangalore edition, page 14

I was waiting for a mainstream newspaper to carry more details, but don't see any good reports yet.

tolls is my worry

srinidhi - 29 January, 2009 - 10:32

we are not necessarily a country of toll payers..there are many slow vehicles like tractors,autos and two wheelers which will eventually use these roads..

do we make them all pay toll?
first give them jobs to earn a decent salary to afford two sqaure meals!

The govt coffers are empty and they go announcing such PPP's to spend nothing and get name!

Think Kheny instilled this idea in the govt to make a real estate racket of the western ghats where he plans a highway from blr to mangalore!

can't say I am excited

murali772 - 29 January, 2009 - 09:40

My big worry as a tree lover is that road widening is going to result in the destruction of thousands of avenue trees. Yes, they will promise to plant saplings in the ratio of 1: 10 etc. But, how many of these will survive and grow up to become trees is a big question mark. And, after those that survive, and have grown into trees, it will be time for widening the road further, and chopping off even these trees therewith. I am not sure I find the idea very exciting.

Besides, good connectivity cannot be ensured by having wide roads. What is more important is good bus services. And, if that remains a government monopoly, the whole idea is even less exciting. If the license-permit raaj is dismantled, and the 'public' proper (unfortunately termed 'private') facilitated, this deficiency can be overcome in a matter of months. That should be the first priority.

Muralidhar Rao

Why does Karnataka have to do this:

nijavaada - 4 February, 2009 - 03:36

While I dont disagree with any of the misuses our society might have been putting our existent roads (along with the holes/ditches and whatnots in them) to, I strongly stand up for this decision to increase and improve the road network in Karnataka. 
 
If we find youth using these wide & high speed roads as personal race tracks, well, let us look ahead in the decades to come. Today there is a dearth for such wide roads, and hence whenever someone finds a patch of open land, he races his automobile! Tomorrow when every road around us is a wide and high speed one, racing gets boring, and commonplace! Everyone on that road would be doing a 120 and who would find these racing bikes different?
 
And coming to the tangential mention of NHDP, I wish to digress from there. Our state has stayed behind badly when it comes to getting National Highway projects approved, and hence we stand to have a contastingly low NH (kms) per Square Km of state geographical area. In this regard we stand far less than TN, and even Bihar! Given the amount of industrialisation Karnataka has as opposed to both these states, we deserve a lot more NH projects approved by Center under the NHDP - which is expected to be a fair providence. 
 
In fact just recently NHDP announced numbers of NH kilometers in each state that it would cover. While already doing good TN is getting 72% of its roads revised, upgraded, improved and widened, Karnataka received a mere 36%. There is also a startling percentage of inter-city roads in TN which have in the recent past been converted into National Highways - which normally should have been State Highways. This is not the case in our state however. Outcome is, in this "federal" setup, states get (tax-)money and infrastructural investment (from the center) as much as they lobby at the center. While it is sad that such a practice is in vogue in our setup, it is even more sad that Karnataka has not been doing its bit (with the center) to get its people what they federally "deserve."
 
All this is cause for such immense deficit in highways inside our state, thus paving way for projects burdening the state's treasury. This manifests as higher state taxes, higher fuel prices, higher energy rates etc. in Karnataka compared to some neighbouring states. Whether it is PPP or purely state-run, there's a burden our state treasury bears in these projects - which could have been borne by the center - assuming we're looked at as an equal state (like TN or BH) in this Federal Indian Union. This is a serious loss to Karnataka's tax payers. This leaking pipe must be plugged..
 
"Come what may, progress has to go on" - seems to be what our state is saying through this project, but at what cost? Our taxes are being invested in making more roads here, while the states of TN & Bihar are making a huge savings on such taxes.. thereby find more developmental avenues to invest their taxes on. This inequity between states is unbearable in our federal union of states. Responsible citizens here in Praja must be aware of this, and realise that organisations of informed citizens must come forward and join the cause of pressing the state govt. to act tough at the center and help get a fair share for Karnataka.
-Nijavaada

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