Improving India’s Travel Infrastructure

Sagarmala Project: The project for development of ports in India was given a Cabinet nod in March 2015. Under this initiative of the Ministry of Shipping that is expected to cost about Rs 12,00,000 crore, 12 ports and over 1200 islands will be developed. Minister of Shipping, Nitin Gadkari has said that the government wants to complete projects worth Rs 5,00,000Cr by May 2019.

To oversee the project, a National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) has been formed. Headed by Minister for Shipping, it has many ministers as members.

The projects will have six megaports: Sagar Island in West Bengal, Paradip Outer Harbour in Odisha, Sirkhazi in Tamil Nadu, Belikeri in Karnataka, Enayam in Tamil Nadu and Vadhavan in Maharshtra. 7,500km of India’s coastline, 14,500km of waterways and strategic locations on important international trade routes will be connected under the programme. Sagarmala Development Company, formed for executing the project, received the Cabinet nod in July 2016.

While inaugurating the Sagarmala office in December 2016, Gadkari had said, “Work with regard to port mechanisation and port modernisation has started. We are starting Ro-Ro (roll-on roll-off) services. We have made a special scheme for fishermen. Overall, this project will be a game-changer. It will be the biggest project in the country’s history.”

Rashtriya Rajmarg Zila Sanjoyokta Praiyojna: Like Bharatmala, another programme that was begun in the year 2015 was Rashtriya Rajmarg Zila Sanjoyokta Praiyojna. Planned to connect 100 of the 676 district headquarters with world-class highways, the programme will incur an expenditure of about Rs 60,000cr. 6,600km of highways will be developed under the project. In order to allow developers to exit highway projects two years after they complete the construction process, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved an exit policy. This was done with an intention to release the locked-in equity so that it could be used for future infrastructure projects.

Setu Bharatam Project: The Prime followed up his infrastructure initiatives of 2015 with the Setu Bharatam project which he launched in 2016. The about Rs 50,800Cr programme, to build bridges for safe and seamless travel on Highways, is taken up with an aim of making all National Highways ‘free of level crossings by 2019’, said Gadkari. “The initiative is taken up to prevent accidents and loss of lives at level crossings”.

Under the project, 208 Railway Over Bridges (ROB) and Railway Under Bridges (RUB) will be built and 1500 bridges built in the British regime will be overhauled. The cost incurred will be close to Rs 20,800Cr.

MoRTH also launched an Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS) to carry out surveys and inventorization of all bridges on the National Highways through Mobile inspection Units. It has appointed 11 consultancy firms for the same.

Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) Project: In 2016 itself, the PM laid the foundation stone of the very ambitious MTHL project of MMRDA. The proposed 22.5km long project, will connect Mumbai with its satellite city, Navi Mumbai through a freeway grade road bridge. The `17,843 crore. MTHL will link the eastern suburbs with main Mumbai through a 16.5km worthbridge on the harbour. It will ease connectivity to the proposed Navi Mumbai airport too.

MTHL will connect Sewri in the Central-East part of Mumbai with Nhava Sheva on the other side of the sea. Nhava Sheva, which is India’s largets container port, will be MTHL’s last point. That is why the project is also called the Sweri-Nhava sheva Trans-Harbour Link but MTHL is more popular now. From Sewri, the links of the bridge will be South Mumbai, Thane Creek and then Chirle village in Nhava Sheva. It will also be connected to Mumbai-Pune Expressway and Mumbai-Goa highway. MTHL will be the longest sea bridge in India.

The bridge was visualised decades ago. Its planning began in 2004. The bridge is expected to have a good impact on real estate and lead to development of areas around it. It is being claimed by the transport planners that so ambitious is this project that it will lead to the creation of a third Mumbai. Initial Rs 7,900crore have already been issued by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The construction work on the project is expected to begin in 2017 itself. When ready, it is expected to reduce the travel time to Goa, Pune or Panvel by one hour.

Chenani-Nashri tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir: Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on April 2 this year. The 10.9km long road tunnel, said to be the nation’s longest and safest tunnel, is built with Austrian tunnel technology and has provisions for safety of the commuters in case of fire or collision. All its smart safety features work through a single software, the Integrated Tunnel System, which controls all the systems including Entrance Detection Control System, Electric Fire Signalling System, Evacuation Broadcast System and Video Surveillance System. It shorten the travelling time between Jammu and Srinagar by two hours. Its special cameras can count the number of vehicles in the tunnel and set the speed accordingly.

The all-weather tunnel, located at an elevation of 1200 metres, has emergency SOS boxes at a distance of every 150m. In J&K, 12 more such tunnels are to be constructed. Together, the 293km long route between Jammu and Srinagar will be reduced by 62km and will be covered in four to four and half hours. The tunnel that has Incident Detection Systems to detect accidents, was dug below a mountain of 1,100m.