Cabinet approves 6-lane Zirakpur bypass with Rs 1,878 crore outlay

New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the construction of the six-lane Zirakpur bypass in Punjab and Haryana with a Rs 1,878.31 crore outlay on a hybrid annuity mode.

The 19.2-km bypass starts from the junction with NH-7 (Zirakpur-Patiala) and ends at the junction with NH-5 (Zirakpur-Parwanoo).

The approval, said the CCEA in a statement, is significant step to facilitate integrated transport infrastructure development under the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan principle.

The Zirakpur bypass follows the Punjab Government Master Plan and terminates at the junction with NH-5 (Zirakpur-Parwanoo) in Panchkula of Haryana, thus avoiding the highly urbanised and congested stretch of Zirakpur in Punjab and Panchkula in Haryana.

According to the CCEA, the main purpose of the project is to ease up congestion in Zirakpur, Panchkula and surrounding areas by diverting traffic from Patiala, Delhi, Mohali Aerocity and providing direct connectivity to Himachal Pradesh.

“The current proposal aims at reducing the travel time and ensuring hassle-free traffic movement in the congested urban section of NH-7, NH-5 and NH-152,” said the government.

The government has taken up the decongestion of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali urban agglomeration with the development of a road network, which would take the shape of a ring road as indicated in the map, and the Zirakpur bypass is an important component of this plan.

Last month, the CCEA approved the construction of the 4-lane access-controlled greenfield and brownfield Patna-Arrah-Sasaram corridor starting from Patna and stretching across 120 km to Sasaram in Bihar. The project will be developed on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) at a total capital cost of Rs 3,712.40 crore, according to a statement issued after the CCEA meeting.

HAM is a public-private partnership (PPP) model designed to revive private sector participation in road infrastructure projects. The government provides 40 per cent of the project cost as an annuity payment to the private developer over the concession period. The private developer raises the remaining 60 per cent of the project cost through debt or equity.

--IANS

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