HYDERABAD: The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) under the Department of Economic Affairs has approved the northern part of the Regional Ring Road (RRR) at an estimated cost of `23,935.6 crore. The project will be taken up under the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) with a concession period of 18 years, including three years of construction.
According to the record of discussions, PPPAC chairperson and DEA secretary Anuradha Thakur questioned the need for the project given an existing parallel road. Officials from the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said the aim was to divert through traffic away from the city, similar to peripheral expressways in Delhi NCR.
They said the existing ring road has reached saturation and a new corridor was required due to multiple radial roads. The expressway was expected to define the outer limit of the Greater Hyderabad region, considering projected traffic by 2047.
When asked if the alignment could be shifted further away, NHAI officials said the current alignment was about 50 km from the city centre and moving it further may reduce traffic.
The committee also discussed adopting HAM instead of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. The programme director of NITI Aayog noted that the project appeared viable under BOT with Viability Gap Funding. In response, NHAI said traffic was expected to grow significantly over the next five years due to urban expansion.
Under BOT, future gains would largely go to the concessionaire, whereas HAM would allow the government to retain gains and later monetise the project under the Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model.
On the proposed 100-metre Right of Way (RoW), MoRTH officials were told that six-lane expressways required additional space for medians and service roads. Future two-lane service roads on both sides were planned, given eight National Highways and 10 State Highways acting as radial roads. While 100 metres was proposed to avoid future land acquisition issues, NHAI indicated that 90 metres would suffice for current needs. The possibility of the state government bearing the cost of the additional 10 metres will be examined.
The northern stretch of the RRR will span 161.51 km in two packages, from Girmapur to Tangad Palle.
