BHUBANESWAR : The much-awaited Odisha coastal highway is set to be delayed further as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has once again cancelled the tenders floated for four segments of the first half of the 346-km project reportedly due to last minute change in plans over traffic volume.
Although the tender annulment notice issued by manager (tech) of NHAI-Odisha circle attributed the cancellation to administrative reasons, sources said, the bids were cancelled a day before the scheduled opening on Friday due to significant changes in the detailed project report (DPR).
“The coastal highway being planned as an alternative and parallel carriageway to the existing NH-16 will be developed as a two-lane paved shoulder access controlled highway instead of the earlier four-lane design. The DPR is being modified accordingly,” sources told The New Indian Express.
Interestingly, the NHAI dropped the plan to develop it as a four-lane highway, a month after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi urged Union minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari at a meeting here to convert the proposed six-lane Bhubaneswar-Puri highway to eight-lane with additional service roads and the two-lane coastal highway to four-lane.
Already delayed by over a decade, the most ambitious coastal highway plan was subjected to last minute change on traffic considerations as the project proponent after a recent impact assessment study believed that the highway may not have the required traffic volume for a four-lane road as NH-16 has already been widened to a six-lane carriageway.
“Now, the coastal highway will be developed as a two-lane carriageway and expanded to four-lane as and when the traffic volume increases to the required threshold, typically around 15,000 passenger car units (PCUs) per day in plain areas as per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways guidelines,” said an NHAI official.
However, the cancellation of tenders on the ground of traffic volume and the impact assessment after the bids were invited have raised questions. Traffic assessment is usually carried out before the DPR is prepared.
In January, the NHAI had 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 47.3 km Rameswar-Puri package-1 was to be built at a cost of Rs 1,875.9 crore, the 42 km Puri-Kakatpur package-2 at a cost of Rs 1,592.95 crore, the 47.6 km Kakatpur-Erasama package-3 at Rs 2,201.17 crore and the 26.2 km Erasama-Ratanpur package-4 at Rs 1,370.41 crore.
In August 2023, the NHAI had cancelled the tenders floated for three packages, totalling 134.2 km, to be built at a cost of Rs 4,075.89 km as the fourth package from Kakatpur to Erasama was facing stiff opposition from the locals due to the revised alignment.
