Bharatmala Roads

[Chitta]

Odisha seems to have a huge component of Bharatmala roads. (But that is not really the case, as the GQ and NSEW corridors are not really access-controlled expressways.) See the next message in this thread) See the map below.

The roads in Odisha that are part of Bharatmala are:

1. GQ National Corridor (Kolkata-Chennai)
   
2. Three economic corridors (EC1 Kolkata-Mumbai, EC28 & EC31 Paradeep-Sambalpur-Rourkela-Ranchi, EC15 Vizag-Raipur)
   
3. Three inter corridors  (Khurda-Angul, Khurda-Baragarh, Chandikhole-Keonjhar, Balasore-Baripada-Bangiriposi)
   
4. Coastal highway (Gopalpur-Digha)
   

From the information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatmala and https://archive.pib.gov.in/documents/rli...102503.pdf ; the Odisha components also include:

• Ring roads for Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur 
  
• Logistics hub at Jagatsinghpur 
  

[Chitta]

In a perverse way the GQ passing through coastal Odisha seems to be working against Odisha in that the central government prefers access controlled expressways to be mostly greenfield as it is cheaper and faster than broadening existing national highways to access controlled expressways. The reasons it is expensive to broaden existing national highways to access controlled expressways are:

• acquiring additional land is expensive. (land adjacent to existing NH is expensive)
  
• since existing NH can not be closed, constructing additional lanes, interchanges etc. is time consuming.
  

Because of this most of the access-controlled expressways that are being constructed consists mostly of greenfield components. 

This is explained nicely in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cckBW7Ob...pOnDriving 

Odisha needs to keep this in mind and propose and push some access-controlled expressways with mostly greenfield components. Following are some suggestions.

• Hyderabad - Koraput - Dhenakanal (close to Bhubaneswar outer ring road) - Baripada - Kolkata
  
• Bhubaneswar outer ring road 
  
• Sambalpur - Varanasi
  
• Paradeep - Ranchi