Golden Quadrilateral project still not complete

Although 12 years have passed after the launch, the much awaited Golden Quadrilateral project has not been completed. Around 99 percent of the entire project is completed but about six schemes under the project are still pending.

Golden Quadrilateral project

The Golden Quadrilateral is a network of highway roads in India connecting four prime metropolitan cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The road network under the project forms a quadrilateral, and hence the name- Golden Quadrilateral. It is the fifth-longest highway in the world. The project was launched in 2001, as phase I of National Highways Development Project (NHDP).

The total length of the road network under the GQ project sums up to 5,846 km. India has a large network of highways which is maintained by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Though all the stretches under the project together account to merely two percent of the country’s total road infrastructure, they carry about 40 percent of the total national traffic.

The Golden Quadrilateral provides transportation links to several cities including New Delhi, Jaipur, Gandhinagar, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Kanpur. The project includes four sections as shown in the table below.

Present status

By the end of 2003-2004 fiscal, around 80% of the stretches were ready, while things started slowing down in the later years. Even after nine years from then, the remaining work is not getting done.

As of now, four schemes on Chennai-Kolkata stretch and two in Mumbai-Chennai stretch are lying pending. The projects that are running behind schedule on Chennai-Kolkata route include Bhubaneswar-Khurda, Balasore-Bhadrak, Ganjam-Ichapuram and Sunakhala-Ganjam on the National Highways 5, 6 and 60. The projects pending on Mumbai-Chennai route include Haveri-Harihar and Harihar-Chitradurga on the National Highways 4, 7 and 46.

Several commuters on the highway roads in the GQ network have often complained that some of the stretches of the four-lane highway are suddenly turning into a two-lane or three-lane roads because of the ongoing works and diversions, paving way to traffic issues and accidents.

Planning of the GQ project

The planning of the GQ project was completed in 1999 and the construction was officially started in 2001. It included construction of a few express highways and extension of the existing roads to four or six lanes. Most of the works were done by January 2012, with a few smaller sections left.

Since the GQ project is a huge one, it was split into several sections based on the state provinces and construction contracts for each section was awarded to individual contractors.

Why the delay?

The project was expected to be completed by 2006. But it was delayed owing to issues related to land acquisition, risks involved in shifting of utilities, regulatory hurdles and legal hassles. Earlier, a Parliamentary Panel had criticized NHAI saying that the delay caused in GQ project reflects improper planning as well as deficient execution. However, NHAI is hopeful that the pending schemes under the GQ project are likely to be completed soon. The expenditure estimated for these schemes amount to Rs 1,238.45 crore.

Future plans

Some of the sections between major areas on the highways NH2, NH5 and NH8, under the Golden Quadrilateral, would be extended to six lanes to make it an expressway. This will ensure a smooth traffic movement on these stretches. The extension will be done on a design, finance, build and operate basis.