NHAI - Blog

All you need to know about the Chennai-Salem Green Highway

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:33:00 +0000

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is expanding the impact of its cluster highways project Bharatmala Pariyojna to Southern India, with its upcoming Chennai-Salem Green Highway corridor in the State of Tamil Nadu (TN).

The NHAI received a clearance from the Centre and the TN government to publish a notification on the land acquisition for the new National Highway. The notification, which has been rolled out, lists all the villages and land pockets the new highway will cut through.

The Chennai-Salem National Highway is a green expressway, a new concept for roadway design that integrates transport functionality and ecological sustainability. The government has proposed to construct it on 4,693 acres (1,900 hectares) of land in 159 villages across 14 talukas in the Kanchipuram, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, and Salem districts.

According to its Detailed Project Report, the proposed green highway is 90-m or 256-ft wide and has 8 lanes, including service roads. It will be divided into two segments – NH-179 A and NH-179 B. These two stretches will offer only 9 entry and exit points, making it an access-controlled highway.

The new national highway will run in two directions:

· From Salem to Coimbatore (western) with Erode and Tiruppur in between

· From Salem to Chengalpetu (eastern) near Chennai, with Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai Kanchipuram in between

From Chengalpetu, the NH-179 will latch on to the Outer Ring Road at Vandalur that connects to the harbour. A special flyover will be built to neutralise any new traffic challenges at the entry point of Chennai that may arise due to the proposed green highway.

The road will branch out to the access points such as Udhagamandalam, Palani, Mettur, and hundreds of other towns and villages. All these measures will make the upcoming NH several times faster and more navigable than the current highways.

Purpose of the New Highway

The NHAI is undertaking the construction of the Rs-10,000-crore 274-km highway to reduce the time taken to travel from the port city of Chennai to the city of Salem, and decongest the existing Chennai-Bangalore and Chennai-Madurai National Highways that operates between the cities, These highways reportedly operate at around 150 percent of their actual capacity.

Currently, the Chennai-Bangalore road sees 60,000 PCU (passenger-car units), which is roughly 20,000 PCU more than its capacity. Similarly, the Chennai-Madurai road carries 80,000 PCU to 90,000 PCU against a true capacity of 40,000. This is making the two highways prone to accidents, with nearly 13,000 persons losing life and limb every year.

The National Highways Authority of India had earlier measured the feasibility of just extending the existing highways. However, that would mean demolishing 20,000 houses in the villages.

Environmental Impact

Keeping in mind the challenges of maintaining an ecological balance, the autonomous highways agency has proposed to divert less than 10 km of the road strip through the forest. It also has designed the road to go through a 3-km-long tunnel in a hillock instead of demolishing or bypassing it.

The land being acquired for the project will use only a fraction of the total irrigated land, and the government will compensate the land-owners by giving them an amount twice or thrice the actual land value. Majority of the land being proposed for acquisition for the NH 179 are wastelands.

For further information, these are a few of the numbers for comparing the performance of old and new highways in terms of time and distance:

Chennai to Kanchipuram

Current

75 km in 1 hr 45 min to 2 hr

New

75 km in 45 min

Chennai to Tiruvannamalai

Current

180 km in 3 hr to 3.5 hr

New

150 km in 1 hr 30 min

Chennai to Salem

Current

330 km in 6 hr to 7 hr

New

270 km in 3 hr

Chennai to Erode

Current

395 km in 7 hr to 8 hr

New

335 km in 3.3 hr to 4 hr

Chennai to Tiruppur

Current

450 km to 9 hr to 10 hr

New

385 km in 4.3 hr

Chennai to Coimbatore

Current

510 km in 10 hr to 11 hr

New

440 km in 5 hr to 5.5 hr

NHAI Expedites ‘Mission 300’ Highway Megaproject

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 06:40:00 +0000

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has ordered the expedition of its ambitious cluster project, Mission 300, and has pegged the launch date to the end of 2018. Mission 300, of which the recently-opened 14-lane Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) is a part of, is a cluster undertaking of the construction of 300 highways and expressways within a short span of time.

Taking cue from the MoRTH, the National Highways Authority of India will now accelerate the construction of the Mission projects. If completed in time, Mission 300 will be one of the largest and most efficient engineering feats the NHAI has undertaken till date. The enterprise complements the NHAI and Central government’s ongoing efforts to modernise highway infrastructure.

The MoRTH and the NHAI, according to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari (MoRTH), are planning to aim for 450 highways and expressways and building at least 300 of them by January. The original date for the realisation of the Mission 300 projects was affixed to April 2019; however, the government decided to prepone the launch.

The NHAI conceptualised 150 highway projects under the Mission, and is working on 416 other highway projects. The highways agency, through Mission 300, is aiming to realise the Centre’s target of laying 40 km of roads every day, according to reliable news outlets. The projects will help the NHAI ease the increasing traffic clutter in and around the metropolitan regions of the country and reduce air pollution levels.

An example of the magnitude of change the Mission will bring is the Delhi-Meerut Expressway mentioned in the introduction. The 14-lane expressway is the widest road network in India and its first phase has already begun easing traffic and reducing pollution between Delhi and Meerut.

The Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) – launched alongside the first phase of DME – is also a part of Mission 300 and cost the government exchequer Rs 11,000 crores. The Expressway provides vehicles in the National Capital Region (NCR) a 6-lane bypass, using which they can travel from cities in NCR to destinations around New Delhi without actually having to travel through the Capital city.

The mega infrastructure goal, Mission 300, will aid the government’s bid to provide higher road connectivity to rural and remote regions in the nation. It also will help in connecting economic zones via highways and expressways besides decongesting city areas and improving trade and commerce.

Mission 300 comprises just a few of the numerous road-infrastructure projects the NHAI has undertaken under the MoRTH.

Some of the other noteworthy highway ventures being pursued by the highways body include: Bharatmala Pariyojana, Wayside Amenities (WSAs), Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), industrial drones and remote sensing for highway projects, GPS tolling, and India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway (IMTTH).

Of these, WSA, ETC, Sukhad Yatra, the ATMS, drones, and the IMTTH have already reached completion or are already functional. In addition to developing expressways and national highways, the NHAI also is integrating technology, such as surveillance systems, to monitor these projects and prevent incidents such as accidents and grid locks.

#SukhadYatra #Mission300 #BharatmalaPariyojana

NHAI to Build Highways to Enhance Connectivity

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:57:00 +0000

Highways make a crucial contribution to economic development & growth. They bring important social benefits like providing access to employment, social, health and education services make a road network crucial in fighting against poverty. Highways open up more areas and encourage economic and social development. For these reasons, highways infrastructure is the most important of all public assets.

An efficient highway transport is a pre-requisite for the sustained economic development. National Highways are an integral part of the transport system. In order to maximize economic and social benefits, country’s highway network should be efficient. They play a significant role in achieving national development and contributing to the overall performance and social functioning of the community.

In India, only 2% of Indian road network comes under National Highways but it carries 40% of the automobile traffics. It signifies the importance of National Highways in the Indian economy. The number of National highways has gradually increased over the years with the improvement in connectivity between cities, towns, and villages in the country.

In the financial year, 2018 agencies under National Highways Authority of India hit the record of 10,000 km stretched highway construction. The total investment in constructing national highways by both the government and private investors was about Rs 1.5 lakh crore, of which almost Rs 1 lakh crore came from budgetary allocation, turnover of toll collections and borrowings by the National Highways Authority of India.

The government, through a series of initiatives, is working on policies to attract significant investor interest. The Indian government plans to develop a total of 66,117 km of roads under different programmes such as National Highways Development Project (NHDP), Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North East (SARDP-NE) and Left Wing Extremism (LWE). To improve the connectivity between ports and remote villages, the government has identified the development of 2,000 km of coastal roads.

As a part of long-term goal of doubling the length of the national highway network to 200,000 km, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to build 50,000 km of roads worth US$ 250 billion by 2022. Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the Government of India will spend around Rs 1 lakh crore (US$ 15.26 billion) during FY 18-20 to build roads in the country. For the construction of new roads and highways over the next five years, the Government of India has decided to invest Rs 7 trillion (US$ 107.82 billion).

NHAI is now dedicated to providing a pleasing experience to the regular highway commuters. To address the issues that affect the highway commuters NHAI has introduced electronic toll collection / FASTag, FASTaglanes in the toll plaza to void the queue, checks the cleanliness at toll plazas, behaviour of the toll plaza staff, wayside amenities, functioning of Highway Nest (Mini), and availability of ambulance and cranes in case of an emergency on the highway. Accordingly, a massive drive was launched on more than 300 toll plazas simultaneously across the country by the Highway Operation Division.

#DevelopmentofRoadWaysinIndia #RoadTransportIndia

NHAI Bonds, LIC and EPFO to Finance around Rs. 1 Lakh Crore for Highway Construction Programmes

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:55:00 +0000

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry have decided to raise around Rs. 1 lakh crore through a well devised off budgetary mechanism in the coming financial year in order to fund several of their highway construction projects. This hefty amount is going to be raised via the National Highways Authority of India’s bonds, institutional financing from the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), from the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and also from various other market borrowings.

The Authorities from NHAI and the Road Ministry have claimed that they are also planning on generating the associated revenue via the highway monetisation programme under the popular Toll-Operate-Transfer scheme and also from the forthcoming and other future investment funds of NHAI. The Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India, Mr Deepak Kumar stated that they are currently working on strategies to generate Rs. 1 lakh crore for the forthcoming financial year. He further stated that 70% of this expenditure is going to be raised by the funds and borrowings while the rest 30% will be generated by the highway monetisation programme.

Many officials are flabbergasted with the amount because of the fact that it is almost twice as what they have had to generate this year which was near to Rs. 47,000 crore. The proposal for the NHAI investment funds has been further looked into by the highest authority board back on March 15th 2018. The announcement regarding the same was made in the financial budget speech by the finance minister. Mr Deepak Kumar further emphasised saying that they are seeking the approval from the board following which they will come up with a concrete plan of action for these investments and revenue generation.

As per the reports, the Road Ministry, for the upcoming fiscal year, is expecting to construct around 12,000 km of roads and highways and will award a record of 25,000 km. The allocated budget for this year has been raised to Rs. 71,000 crore from Rs. 61,000 crore which was passed for the financial year of 2017-18. The stretch of construction this year is expected to be around 10,000 km which is by far the highest to be constructed.

Owing to the successful implementation of the Bharatmala highway construction programme, 34,800 km of highways are expected to be constructed by the end of 2022 with an estimated expenditure of Rs. 5.35 lakh crore. The Government is planning on bearing these costs with market borrowings, highway monetisation, central road funds and budgetary allocation. If reports are to be believed, Rs. 2.09 lakh crore will come from market borrowings, Rs. 1.06 crore through private investment and the rest from the central road fund and toll operate transfer model.

With a vision ahead with the Bharatmala programme, the Road Ministry of India is implementing ways to better the road and highway infrastructure of the country. Several ambitious highway projects are expected to be executed in the near future, the outcome of which is going to boost the overall economic development of the country.

#DevelopmentofRoadWaysinIndia #RoadTransportIndia

Recent Technological Initiatives of NHAI

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:54:00 +0000

The technology is progressing like never before. It is evident in the rate of technological upgradation happening across the world. The governments are leveraging technology like never before. Many of the problems, which have been dragging the development of the world, could be solved using various technologies and their applications. So, the government of India is leaving no stone unturned in using technology to churn out changes from the technology. It has advised its departments and bodies to prepare a ground for digitalisation. Accordingly, the NHAI has been implementing tech-based initiatives.

The National Highways Authority of India is a statutory body established under NHAI Act 1988. This autonomous body functions under the aegis of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The NHAI is vested with the responsibility of developing, managing and maintaining of the allocated portion of the National Highway Network.

The amount of trade happening across the country has been raising its bars day on day, which could be attributed to financial reforms. But, without investing much on the trade-facilitating infrastructural front, it wouldn’t be possible for the government to tap the benefits of the reforms. In India, the national highways are considered as trade facilitators as they support 40% of all the trade happening across the country, though they constitute just 2% of the Indian roadways. For the same reason, they are also referred as arterial networks of India. So, the government has been investing in the development of national highways to absorb the problems that would be arising from trade-traffic. In the process of meeting its objectives, the NHAI has been making ways for diverse technologies. Some of its tech-based innovations are:

FASTag

To control congestion near Toll Plazas, the NHAI along with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced FASTag Toll collection system. Many of the Fin-tech companies came forward to complement this initiative by the government of India. FASTags are coded unique tags, which works on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Commuters can purchase the FASTags from the authorised dealers. They should be linked to the bank accounts in order to make them function. Commuters need to fix the FASTags to their vehicles’ windscreens to allow the RFID sensors to easily detect. When a FASTagged vehicle passes by the FASTag-enabled Toll Plaza, then without any human intervention the Toll would be deducted from the bank accounts linked to that. Commuters would receive once their Toll payments are processed.

Sukhad Yatra App

To empower the highways’ commuters to demand accountability and getting their issues solved, the NHAI with its technical partners has come up with a mobile application named Sukhad Yatra, which means ‘Happy Journey’. Using this App, the commuters can report on the conditions and maintenance of national highways and also can produce visual evidence.

There are many commuter-centric features embedded in this App such as Nearby Toll Plaza, Report an issue, Nearby, and Toll Plaza Enroute. Commuters can get to know information about all the Toll Plazas prior to the start of their journeys. The NHAI has also provided commuters with an option of Purchasing FASTag from this App.

There are a lot more developments that would be coming from the NHAI and a lot of developments would be powered by technological advancements in the coming days.

#SukhadYatra #FASTag #TollPlaza

Recent Technological Initiatives of NHAI

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:52:00 +0000

FASTag

Sukhad Yatra App

There are a lot more developments that would be coming from the NHAI and a lot of developments would be powered by technological advancements in the coming days.

#SukhadYatra #FASTag #TollPlaza

NHAI Created History by Awarding Projects Worth Rs 1,22,000 Crores

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:52:00 +0000

The infrastructure sector in India is taking more and more positive strides day on day. The Government of India is leaving no opportunity to improve the infrastructure in India. The roadway sector in India, which is one of the largest trade facilitators, is catching the momentum of infrastructure growth. The sector is pulling/attracting investments from across the globe. Accordingly, the National Highways Authority of India, in the financial year of 2017-2018, sanctioned highway development projects worth Rs 1.2 lakh crores. This feat by the NHAI reflects the prospects of the highways sector in India.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is a statutory body of government of India, was created to develop and maintain a large chunk of the national highway network. This autonomous body works under the aegis of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). For the past 2 decades, the NHAI has embarked on a mission to upgrade the status/condition of the national highways of India. In the year 1998, it started a program named National Highways Development Program (NHDP) to modernise the national highways according to the changing times. In 2015, the government of India has launched ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’, a program aimed at configuring the national highways on par with the rising demands.

The ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ is one of the major factors that made NHAI award 150 new projects worth Rs 1,22,000 crores in the financial year 2017-18. 7,400 km of national highways will be developed under these 150 new projects. Compared to the average length of road projects flagged off by the NHAI in the last 5 financial years, which is 2,860 km, the financial year 2017-18 saw a great surge in the highways sector.

The rise in the speed of development of the projects is attributed to factors like change in the procedure of sanctioning projects under EPC and various measures/financial models that have been implemented by the NHAI for the last one year. Some of the measures taken by the NHAI are:

The Hybrid Annuity Model, which is termed as a game-changer in the developmental works pertaining to highways, is boosting the confidence of investors with promised returns.
The Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model is one of the revolutionary financial models of NHAI. This model is part of NHAI’s Asset Recycling Plan. Through this model, in the last financial year, the NHAI called for bids to maintain different stretches of the national highway network. The bids were successful and the NHAI earned good revenue out of them.
From November 2017, the MoRTH delegated the NHAI board with powers of sanctioning Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) projects. To this effect, the NHAI has created two committees namely High powered Projects Appraisal Committee and Cost Committee.

This financial year 2018-19, is going to witness the same trend of awarding the contracts from NHAI. If the NHAI maintains the same momentum in the coming years, then the ambitious targets set under the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ by the government of India would be met by the NHAI.

#DevelopmentofRoadWaysinIndia #RoadTransportIndia

NHAI Created History by Awarding Projects Worth Rs 1,22,000 Crores

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:50:00 +0000

The Hybrid Annuity Model, which is termed as a game-changer in the developmental works pertaining to highways, is boosting the confidence of investors with promised returns.
The Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model is one of the revolutionary financial models of NHAI. This model is part of NHAI’s Asset Recycling Plan. Through this model, in the last financial year, the NHAI called for bids to maintain different stretches of the national highway network. The bids were successful and the NHAI earned good revenue out of them.
From November 2017, the MoRTH delegated the NHAI board with powers of sanctioning Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) projects. To this effect, the NHAI has created two committees namely High powered Projects Appraisal Committee and Cost Committee.

#DevelopmentofRoadWaysinIndia #RoadTransportIndia

NHAI is Mulling to Pull Equity Investors to Finance Highway Projects

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:47:00 +0000

The investment climate in India is taking positive turn day on day. As investors see a ray of hope in Indian markets, many investments pour in across many core sectors. The National Highways Authority of India is contemplating this situation on how the highway sector could benefit out of this context. Accordingly, it has come up with a plan to rope equity investors to finance its development projects.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a statutory body of Government of India, is an autonomous authority under the aegis of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which was assigned with the development and maintenance of the assigned national highways. From its inception, it has been innovating new ways in fulfilling its responsibilities.

In its mission to revamp the national highway network, the NHAI is leaving no stone unturned. It has been experimenting new financial models to fund its massive projects. Recently it started experimenting financing models like Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) and Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT). Now, it is mulling to look for “equity” investments in the highway sector.

Under Hybrid Annuity Model, the Government itself would be providing an upfront investment of 40% to the developer and the rest would be paid in installments. This model is first of its kind in the highway sector in India. This model of investment could shed fears of investment-related returns as the government would be promising returns.
Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) is one such innovative financial model that would solve multiple problems at a go. It is part of NHAI’s Asset Recycling Plan, wherein both the NHAI and the contractors would get benefitted. This model proved more successful and the NHAI has received bids in an unprecedented manner.

Riding high on the positive response it received from TOT model, the NHAI is expecting the same to happen with the equity investments in highway development projects. Around 46,000 crores worth of new projects may be developed through equity investments. The NHAI is even looking to tap Pension funds and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (If there is a chance).

As the NHAI got immersed in works with ambitious targets, there would be no wonder if it comes with many such innovative financial models.

#DevelopmentofRoadWaysinIndia #RoadTransportIndia

NHAI is Reshaping its Operations with Recent Technologies

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:43:00 +0000

The role of the technology in shaping the world into a better place can’t be ignored. The world has seen the effect of the science and technology post-industrial revolution, which happened in the late 18th century. Now, the technology is influencing the way we live and we experience things. The influx of tech-enabled devices is making it easy for both the society as well as governing bodies. The Government of India has launched a program ‘Digital India’ to expand the footprint of India in the Digital world. It encouraged every wing and department, which is under its fold, to adopt latest technologies to alleviate problems. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is one of the bodies that are contending for a top position to embrace new technologies.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), is a statutory that was established for the development and maintenance of the assigned part of National Highway network. In its journey for taking the national highways to their next levels, the NHAI has knocked the doors of technology.

The NHAI has even created an IT and Highway operations that reflects its priorities related to technology. The Highway operations division has been at the forefront in implementing the technology-led initiatives. Some of its noteworthy initiatives are:

FASTag - To get rid of waiting at Toll Plazas, the NHAI has developed FASTag Toll Collection System, which is also referred as Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system. Using this system, the NHAI could reduce the amount of congestion at its Toll Plazas. Soon, every NHAI operated Toll Plaza will be getting at least one dedicated FASTag lane on either side. The Government of India has even passed an order mandating FASTag for every vehicle purchased after November 2017.

Advanced Traffic Incident Management System

To curb the rise in the fatality rate on national highways, the NHAI has come up with the Advanced Traffic Incident Management System. Through this system, the field staff of the NHAI will be equipped with the equipment that can deal with emergencies. The entire process of managing emergencies would be tracked using Global Positioning System (GPS). And recently a Toll-Free number-1033 was launched to report accidents and receive emergency support.

There are many other instances and areas where the NHAI has used different and multiple technologies to combat commuter-centric problems.

#FASTag #Tollplazas