[sustran] fwd: Mega road projects big business for Delhi

Paul Barter geobpa at nus.edu.sg
Thu May 10 09:42:44 JST 2001


Straits Times interactive
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/storyprintfriendly/0,1887,42750,00.html?
May 10, 2001 


Mega road projects is big business for Delhi


It is pumping billions of dollars into building roads, but the impact onthe
environment and local cultures is stirring up strong opposition 

By Nirmal Ghosh 
INDIA CORRESPONDENT 

NEW DELHI - With a loan package of US$200 billion (S$366 billion) backing
the US$540-billion expansion of India's highway network, building roads has
become a very big business - and is spawning considerable controversy. 

Already, there is opposition to a plan to develop the Bangalore-Mysore
Infrastructure Corridor, involving expansion of the road infrastructure in
the area which the state government hopes to develop into an
information-technology and biotechnology belt. 

Wildlife conservation organisations recently won a temporary stay order from
India's Supreme Court on a highway which would have run through part of
Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttaranchal.

But this was not before the state government had felled some 7,000 trees
along the proposed route despite a spate of media reports highlighting the
issue.

Road building, in fact, gains a momentum of its own because of the vested
interests involved.

Contractors compete for the trees that are felled and for the road building
itself, while ancillary sectors like petrol pumps, workshops, small hotels
and transport operators also benefit. 

But road building serves as a tool to open up areas which are often
sensitive, both from the point of view of the environment and local
cultures.

The Corbett forests, for instance, serve as water-catchment areas for three
major rivers and agricultural plains that flank them.

Transport and Highway Minister B.C. Khanduri, who hails from the newly
formed state of Uttaranchal, said on Tuesday that India would get a
US$200-billion loan from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for
part-financing of the US$540-billion National Highway Development Programme
(NHDP).

The rest of the money required would come from a moderate levy on diesel and
petrol, as well as market borrowings, he said. 

'We have the second largest road network after the US. And our effort is to
complete the NHDP by 2007.'

His own state plans to spend US$1 billion on building new roads and bridges
and expanding existing ones.

Some of the road building is aimed at improving infrastructure for tourism,
one of the few resources Uttaranchal can capitalise on. 

The showcase of the national highway plan is the US$270-billion Golden
Quadrilateral connecting the metros of Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta
with four-lane expressways. 

Mr Khanduri said Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had asked his
ministry to complete the mega-project by 2003.

The government has had only moderate success so far in attracting private
investment in roads, mainly because of worries that the market may not
accept the toll-road concept in poorer areas.

Copyright @ 2000 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. 
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