GQ project to be completed next year

The Golden Quadrilateral project involving the four-laning of National Highway (NH)-5 in Orissa would take at least a year for completion.

This was stated by KH Muniyappa, the Union minister of state for shipping, road transport and highways in response to a question raised by Rajya Sabha member Renubala Pradhan.

About 100-km out of the 170-km stretch of NH-5 is yet to be completed and the reason for the delay in completion of this project has been the termination of the work order of the original contractors selected for the job, said Muniyappa. The work on the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) project had started in 2001.

The work on 62.64-km Bhadrak-Balasore stretch and 56.16-km Sunakhala-Ganjam project has been targeted for completion by December 2010, while the 50.81-km long Ganjam-Ichapuram highway project is set to be commissioned by June 2009, he added. “Only 35.56 km of the 62.64-km stretch of Bhadrak-Balasore and 20.34-km out of 56.16-km stretch of Sunakhala-Ganjam NH has been completed so far. Similarly, only 14.58-km out of total 50.81-km stretch of the Ganjam-Ichapuram project was completed in the last eight years”, he informed.