01-21-2025, 03:33 PM
Following is excerpted from https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/...06b9IXuEvg
Quote:BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha coastal highway aimed at providing an alternative parallel carriageway and decongesting Chennai-Kolkata NH-16 is set to become a reality almost a decade after it was conceived.
... with the revised alignment by shortening the distance from 451 km to 346 km and skipping the eco-sensitive areas in Chilika, Balukhand wildlife sanctuary and Bhitarkanika national park, the issues seem to have been sorted out.
Sources said, the four-lane coastal highway will be constructed in two sections - from Rameswar to Ratanpur and Ratanpur to Digha. Along with this, another 67-km highway will also be built to connect the coastal highway at Dhamra with NH-16 at Jamujhadi. The 413-km project in three sections, part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana under the Centre’s ‘Purvodaya’ vision, will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 23,882 crore.
The NHAI has already floated tenders for the 163-km section-1 from Rameswar to Ratanpur to be built at a cost of Rs 7,040.43 crore on hybrid annuity mode in four packages. The stretch will pass through Tangi, Bramhagiri, Puri, Konark, Astarang, Naugaon and Paradip covering four districts - Khurda, Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.
While the bid has been notified for the 47.3 km phase-1 from Rameswar to Puri to be built at a cost of Rs 1,875.9 crore, the 42 km phase-2 from Puri to Kakatpur will be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,592.95 crore. Similarly, the 47.6 km phase-3 from Kakatpur to Ersama will be built at Rs 2,201.17 crore and the rest 26.2 km from Erasama to Ratanpur (Paradip) will be constructed at Rs 1,370.41 crore.
... The bids will be opened on February 28, he said.
... Sources said 734.4 hectares of land, including private, government and forest land, will be acquired in 183 villages for the section 1 of the project. So far, land acquisition notification has been issued for 75 per cent of the land.