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The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken over the Salem-Cochin corridor national highway (NH) 47 for widening into four lanes as part of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP).

Official sources said national highway 47 was not part of the "Golden Quadrilateral" or the National Highways Development Programme but was being taken up simultaneously for development in view of the fact it provided a crucial link to Cochin Port.

The approximate distance for the four laning, providing the port linkage to Cochin is expected to be about 360 kilo metres, and is expected to cost about Rs 1,500 crore. NH47 between Cochin and Salem currently has a traffic flow of about 42,000 passenger car units , with almost 80 per cent of the traffic comprising of heavy commercial vehicles, both buses and freight.

 

This would mean that the cost estimates of the NHDP would now go up slightly from the estimated Rs 54,000 crore.

The next stage for the NHAI now would be to appoint project consultants for carrying out detailed feasibility studies, before actually taking up the project for EPC bidding (engineering, procurement and construction).

Sources said that this was likely be taken up only next year and the methods of funding would also be decided at that stage.

However, this project would be given the same priority for development as the NHDP and the Golden Quadrilateral.

A small portion of less than 100 km is already being widened with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank. But the bulk of the road continues to be only a two lane corridor.

NH47 would act as one of the spurs to the golden quadrilateral which links all the metros in the country. But the Golden Quadrilateral and the North South East West corridor, also simultaneously provides links to ten of the major ports along the route. Only New Mangalore, and Cochin fell outside both the Golden Quadrilateral and the North South East West Corridor, which comes under NHDP. Tuticorin port falls within the purview of the North South Corridor, since it is linked by NH7A.

This leaves only the New Mangalore Port Trust out of the purview of the NHDP programme. Although this port is already linked by both NH17 and NH48, the NHAI has recommended only the latter project for widening into four lanes. This was because traffic count on this corridor is in the region of about 30,000 units and has been growing, since this port also provides links to the hinterland of Karnataka. But the widening of this road would allow NH48 to be linked to the Golden Quadrilateral near Bangalore. Once this is also taken up, sources said , all the ports in the country would be fully interlinked by four lane roads allowing for con