Work on the ambitious Kanpur Outer Ring Road is finally set to begin.
This comes in the backdrop of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) finalising lowest bidders for Package 1 and Package 4 of the project.
The 23.325-km-long Package 1 lies west of Kanpur city and will connect Sachendi with Mandhana.
Similarly, the 24.559 km Package 4 lies south of Kanpur city and will connect Khudhgaon with Sachendi.
Plan
The six lane green field ring road is located around the Kanpur city. It starts from NH-19 near Sachendi village and ends at same point, ie, NH-19 near Sachendi village in Kanpur Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
The 93.21-km-long greenfield highway passes through three districts of the state — Kanpur Nagar (62km), Unnao (27km) and Kanpur Dehat (4km).
The project shall be further connected to the major highways connecting the city. These include NH-19 from Delhi to Kolkata via Kanpur and Varanasi; NH-34 from Gangotri to Lakhnadon via Haridwar, Kanpur and Jabalpur and NH-27 from Porbandar to Silchar.
The State Highway 58 (SH-58) which connects Kanpur and Unnao will also be connected to the ring road.
Project Divided In Four Packages
The NHAI had invited tenders for both packages’ civil construction contracts in November 2022 with 2.5-year deadlines.
Raj Corporation Ltd has emerged as the lowest bidder for packages and 1 4, with bid cost of Rs 647.42 crore and Rs 547.67 crore respectively.
Bidding is currently underway for Package 3 while the tender process for the fourth package is yet to start.
The third package is 17.45-km-long from km 51.200 to 68.650 km around Kanpur city with a 1.45 km four-lane airport link road. The estimated cost of the contract is Rs 844.23 crore with a completion timeline of 2.5 years.
Rs 10,000 Crore Project Cost
Kanpur, one of the industrial capitals of India, once boasted of being the Manchester of the Eastern world. The city is a major hub for the leather and textile industries.
The city has been witnessing long traffic snarls which has worsened due to the entry of heavy vehicles in the city. In particular, a large part of the GT Road passes through the middle of the urban population.
For a permanent solution to this problem, the plan of Outer Ring Road was prepared in the year 2014. The initial action plan of 93-km continued to gather dust until 2020, when the NHAI conducted a pre-feasibility survey and commissioned a detailed project report.
Based on the feasibility report, the project was approved for implementation under Phase-VII of National Highways Development Project (NHDP).
Under NHDP Phase VII, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved for 700 km of ring roads, bypasses and flyovers and selected stretches at an estimated cost of Rs 16,680 crore.
An estimated Rs 10,000 crore shall be spent on constructing this ring road. This includes Rs 6,600 crore on construction and Rs 3,400 crore on land acquisition.
According to NHAI, efforts will be made to make the project a reality by 2025.