Decades-Long Delay in National Highway Corridor Completion
Even after more than a quarter-century, critical sections of India's major highway corridors remain incomplete, according to official data presented in Parliament. The Road Transport Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that seven stretches of the East-West and North-South corridors are yet to be finished across Assam, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir.
Current Status of Construction Work
The ministry revealed that while construction activities are actively progressing on six of these impacted stretches, the appointed date for the remaining one has not been officially declared, meaning physical construction work has not yet commenced. This delay affects approximately 140 kilometers of crucial national highway infrastructure that was originally conceived as part of a transformative connectivity project.
Historical Context of the Corridor Projects
The ambitious North-South and East-West Corridor initiative was formally approved in December 2000 during the tenure of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government. This project constituted Phase-II of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) with the visionary goal of providing four-lane highway connectivity spanning from Srinagar to Kanyakumari (North-South corridor) and from Silchar to Saurashtra (East-West corridor).
State-Specific Challenges and Delays
Officials provided detailed explanations for the prolonged delays in each affected region:
- Assam: A 49.2-kilometer stretch under the East-West Corridor has faced significant setbacks primarily due to recurring landslides that have hampered construction progress and necessitated additional engineering solutions.
- West Bengal: Three separate stretches with a cumulative length of 77 kilometers have experienced substantial delays attributed to multiple factors, with land acquisition challenges being particularly prominent among the issues.
- Jammu & Kashmir: Three impacted sections under the North-South corridor have been delayed due to a combination of factors including design modifications requiring tunnels and viaducts, along with poor performance by contracted construction firms.
Broader Expressway Project Challenges
In a separate parliamentary reply concerning ongoing expressway projects, the ministry disclosed additional infrastructure challenges. Currently, 55 expressway stretches are at various stages of implementation across the country, but contracts for five of these have either been terminated or are undergoing foreclosure/termination procedures.
The detailed response specified that:
- Contracts for two packages of the Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway have been terminated.
- Contracts for three packages of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway are under foreclosure or termination processes.
- Construction work on a section of the Bangalore-Chennai Expressway has completely stopped due to the contractor's financial constraints.
These revelations highlight systemic challenges in India's highway infrastructure development, ranging from geological obstacles and bureaucratic delays to contractor performance issues and financial viability concerns. The incomplete corridors represent critical gaps in the national transportation network that was envisioned to dramatically improve connectivity between India's northern, southern, eastern, and western regions.
