Budget cuts a Rs 25k crore road upgrade from Kolkata to Siliguri – Times of India

Kolkata: The Rs 25,000 crore allotted to Bengal’s national highway projects will help develop 675 km of national highway network and augment the Kolkata-Siliguri road connectivity, both of which will pass through places with high political stakes.
“The Bengal government has already built 88,841 kilometres of rural roads. The Centre has awarded the state for it. In the state, 5,111 kms of state highways have already been built and 1,165 km is under construction,” said state finance minister Amit Mitra. “They have woken up only now. Why? Because of the elections.”
Officials at National Highways Authority of India said 235-km Kharagpur-Burdwan-Morgram (Murshidabad) national highway would be one of the most important projects that would connect two growth centres in West Midnapore (Kharagpur) and East Burdwan and reduce travel time as well as take a lot of load off NH2 and NH6.
The ministry of road transport and highways wants completion of two stretches in Bengal, which will cost around Rs 4,214 crore, on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. The two projects are six-laning of Panagarh to Palsit (68 km) at Rs 2,021 crore and six-laning of Palsit to Dankuni (64 km) at a project cost of Rs 2,193 crore. But the major focus will be on NH34, which connects Kolkata with Siliguri. The Budget allotment was expected to boost the final phase of four-laning of NH34, work on which was likely to start shortly, a senior NHAI official said. A 67km stretch of the highway between Barajaguli and Krishnagore in Nadia would be taken up for four-laning, he said. Due to unavailability of land for the four-laning of a 17-km stretch in Barasat, reportedly despite payment of Rs 200 crore as compensation, the widening project will now begin from Barajaguli. “Thw four-laning in Krishnagore will begin on Monday. There are some land-related issues on a 4km portion,” NHAI CGM R P Singh said. “A Rs 1,100-crore engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract is expected to be executed in 30 months.” He added once over, 95% of 500km of NH34 between Kolkata and Dalkhola in North Dinajpur would be four-lane. The 130-km distance between Dalkhola and Siliguri is already a four-lane stretch on NH27.