Eastern Peripheral Expressway

[pgarg2000]

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/227 ... edite.html

PM asks transport ministry to expedite allocation of road projects

New Delhi, Feb 14, 2012, DHNS:

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday directed the ministry of road transport and highways to expedite the allocation of major projects for this fiscal.

"The ministry of Road Transport and Highways has assured that 15 major projects covering 1,547 km of roads and highways will be awarded within this financial year," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in statement. According to the PMO, another 11 projects for 1,731 km of roads will be considered by the public private partnership (PPP) approval committee next week.

"This will ensure that the target for the current financial year of 7,999 km is met on time." The Cabinet committee on infrastructure will also consider a proposal by the Highways ministry on the eastern peripheral expressway.

The expressway is expected to decongesting the national capital region (NCR) on the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana side along with the completion of the western peripheral expressway which is nearing completion.

Earlier Union Road Transport and Highway Minister C P Joshi told reporters that an inter-ministerial panel will soon finalise the EPC model for building roads.

[pgarg2000]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-new ... 11578.aspx

Delhi bypass set to get all-clear

New Delhi, February 15, 2012

The prime minister's office has stepped in to ensure there’s no further delay in implementing the ambitious project to complete a ring road around Delhi — to let 200,000 vehicles bypass the Capital every day.

Hindustan Times had on February 10 highlighted how the 135-km
Eastern Peripheral Expressway — one half of the project — has failed to take off due to bureaucratic indecisiveness.

At a meeting on Tuesday chaired by Pulok Chatterjee, principal secretary to the PM, it was decided that the cabinet committee on infrastructure will clear the project next week.

[pgarg2000]

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=80319

same news ...

PM sets targets for awarding roads and highway projects

On the direction of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has assured that 15 major projects of 1,547 kilometers of Roads and Highways will be awarded within this financial year. Another 11 projects for 1,731 kms of Roads will be considered by the Public Private Partnership Approval Committee, next week for speedy approval. This will ensure that the target for the current financial year of 7,999 kms is met on time.

A meeting attended by Member Secretary Planning Commission, Secretary Department of Economic Affairs, Secretary Ministry of Road Transport & Highways along with Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister decided that Cabinet approvals will be sought within next week to complete this task. The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure will also consider a proposal by the MORTH on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway to clear the project in its meeting scheduled for next week. This Expressway will help in decongesting the National Capital Region on Uttar Pradesh and Haryana side along with the Western Peripheral Expressway which is nearing completion. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry would also indicate its targets for the next year within this month.

[pgarg2000]

we are back to sqaure 1 ....

http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... igher-toll

[dheerajjain]

I think this conflict between various ministers is good. I personally believe charging 150% more toll rates will heavily burden commuter. But, at the same time, construction of expressway should be done. Some middle path has to be agreed upon

[pgarg2000]

looks like PM is pushing for EPE again ..

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 062610.cms

PMO asks ministerial panel to resolve EPE toll row

Feb 28, 2012, 01.34AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's Office has stepped in to end the toll charge row over the crucial Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), one half of the ring expressway around Delhi. It has reportedly asked a group of ministers comprising finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, highways minister C P Joshi and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to take a decision on the toll charge proposed for the 135-km stretch connecting Palwal and Kundli in Haryana via Ghaziabad.

Sources in the highways ministry said the project, caught up in the toll controversy, was likely to come up in the next Cabinet meeting on Thursday. "Now the group of ministers will decide about the toll charge to be levied before it comes up for clearance by the Cabinet," a source said.

When the project was conceived, the finance and highways ministries had agreed that it should be treated as a highway but the highways ministry recently changed its stand. It proposed that the expressway be treated as a bypass to Delhi. This would have led to a toll 50% more than what is charged on any NH stretch.

Ironically, before sending the proposal to the Cabinet, the highways ministry had asked the finance and law ministries and Planning Commission about their stand on the toll. While the finance ministry stuck to its earlier stand, the plan panel supported higher toll.

Moreover, despite NHAI opposing such a move claiming that higher toll would make the project financially unviable and end up benefiting the competing facility of Western Peripheral Expressway (the other half of the ring) besides putting a strain on people, the highways ministry supported the plan panel proposal.

Due to the controversy, necessary clearances for EPE have been delayed by months and the cost of the project has gone up. "Higher toll will make the project less attractive. The cost has gone up by Rs 300 crore in three-and-a-half years to Rs 2,699 crore," an NHAI official said.

[pgarg2000]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/morth ... ay/918383/

New Delhi, Thu Mar 01 2012, 01:14 hrs

There is fresh objection to charging higher toll on the proposed Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), and it comes from within the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH). The EPE proposes to connect Kundli to Palwal in Haryana through Ghaziabad.

Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor Vijay Chibber has written to the Finance Ministry that terming the EPE as a bypass road from its national highway status would lead to higher toll and would also require subsidy from the government. “...we are not only levying a higher tariff on the people but also increasing the risks to be adopted by the prospective concessionaire and hence the need for providing viability gap funding as against a positive revenue stream,” Chibber wrote last week.

Last November, the Finance Ministry rejected MoRTH Minister CP Joshi’s push to levy a higher toll on the EPE than that on the Western Peripheral Expressway as it would divert traffic to WPE and impact EPE’s viability. The WPE, awarded to DS Construction in 2008, will connect Kundli to Palwal in Haryana through Manesar. Moreover, it said the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) had reconfirmed five times that the EPE was not a bypass road but an NH and therefore, bypass toll of 1.5 times the highway rate was not applicable.

EPE and WPE, together, are conceived to form a ring road outside Delhi for channeling non-Delhi bound traffic without entering the national capital.

But Joshi and the Planning Commission are adamant on reversing the PPPAC decision which was based on the backing by the NHAI and MoRTH. Chibber’s contention is based on NHAI estimates which show that even at normal NH rates, the EPE toll would be higher than WPE toll by 60 to 75 per cent and would divert 22 per cent of the traffic to WPE.

If the EPE was considered as a bypass, its toll rates would be 96 per cent to 111 percent higher than the WPE toll.

“Taken together with the uncertainty regarding the extent of traffic diversion, the increase in risk and uncertainty is likely to lead to extremely erratic and inconsistent bids, which is not desirable,” he argues, adding that there was likelihood that NHAI would have to come back later to the government for VGF or for terming EPE as an NH.

Miffed by the inordinate delay and internal dissensions over the EPE, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week intervened to set up a GoM comprising Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Joshi and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman MS Ahluwalia to “resolve the matter”.

The letter from the PMO cautions: “The PM has observed that this matter has been considerably delayed. He has desired that the matter should be brought to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure if the ministers take a considered decision to overrule the decision of the PPPAC”.

The Plan panel too is divided on the issue with Member BK Chaturvedi putting on record that “if the PPPAC decisions are to be overturned and matters which are delegated to it are to go to Cabinet afresh, we might as well abolish the PPPAC”.

Member Secretary Sudha Pillai has supported the view and reiterated that imposition of a higher toll would be “contrary to the government policy” and would “not be in public interest”.

However, Ahluwalia has supported the higher bypass rate: “MoRTH has decided to treat EPE as a bypass and therefore, Planning Commission does not have any objection in this regard.”

[dheerajjain]

I also personally believe that charging higher toll rates (>50% than originally planned) on EPE will be disaster both to commuters and Govt. Why will anyone use EPE when WPE provides an option at half of cost (though it will be longer route) ? NHAI, MoRTH and PPPAC look right. Intentions of road minister and Planning Commission should be questioned. Planning Commission under Montek Singh Ahluwalia has put country GDP growth at 3 years low. I have some points to submit:

- Charging original toll rates will attract more vehicular traffic on EPE and will provide good returns to private contractor. Look at Gurgaon Expressway where vehicular traffic is more than 2 times than originally planned and it is providing handsome profit to private contractor.

- NHAI has strong monitoring and control mechanisms and it should be an highway as NHAI/PPAC is saying. Chances of corruption are low.

[pgarg2000]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/in ... ds-newsxml

The apparently distant pipe dream to free the Capital's roads of heavy, inter-state traffic just got dearer.

Delhiites will now have to pay an additional amount of more than Rs 600 crore for the delayed Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) and Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE) projects.

The projects, by reducing vehicular traffic, are aimed at slashing the number of accidents and reducing air pollution in the city.

What's worrying the Delhi government is that the project cost could escalate further by a few hundred crores because of the delay and confusion in implementation of the projects.
The latest escalation has increased the cost of the projects to `2,550.68 crore. This means the Delhi government, which contributed more than Rs 650 crore earlier, will soon be handing out another Rs 620 crore as its share of the cost.

'We have feelers that the project cost could go up to Rs 2,900 crore. In such a case we would want part of the toll revenue after the initial By Bhuvan Bagga in New Delhi party's concession contract expires,' a Delhi government official said.
As a part of this project, several hundred kilometres of six-lane expressways will be built in a way that they form a circumference around the Capital.

The Delhi government's contribution to the cost of the projects is 50 per cent and once commissioned, it is expected to ensure that at least one to two lakh vehicles won't enter Delhi's road network.
The Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments are contributing 25 per cent each to the projects. Sources in the Delhi government's planning department say the issue of cost escalations was discussed at the state cabinet meeting held on Monday.
The state government reportedly gave an in-principle approval to release an additional Rs 600 crore for the escalated sum.

But officials will raise the issue with the neighbouring states and the Centre.
'We want to point out that states are gaining a lot more from the projects than Delhi. We want them to understand such cost escalations are unfair on Delhiites,' the official added.

[pgarg2000]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 335248.cms

[yadav_ajay]

News from

http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/local/u ... 52339.html

ईस्टर्न पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस-वे निर्माण को बढ़े कदम
Apr 18,

ग्रेटर नोएडा, संवाददाता : पांच साल बाद जाकर ईस्टर्न पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस- वे का काम जमीनी हकीकत पर आया है। अब तक निर्माण की प्रक्रिया कागजों में चल रही थी। निर्माण को लेकर नेशनल हाइवे अथॉरिटी ऑफ इंडिया (एनएचएआइ) ने निविदा जारी कर दी है। जिले में एक्सप्रेस-वे के लिए जमीन पर कब्जा देने की प्रक्रिया जल्द शुरू हो जाएगी। आबादी को लेकर किसानों के साथ कुछ विवाद है, जिसे सुलझाने के लिए प्रशासन स्तर पर प्रयास किया जा रहा है। ईस्टर्न पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस-वे का निर्माण पूरा होने पर दिल्ली में वाहनों का दबाव कम होगा। ग्रेटर नोएडा से दिल्ली-एनसीआर के साथ अन्य शहरों का सफर सुगम होगा। प्रदेश में सत्ता परिवर्तन होने के बाद सपा सरकार ने ईस्टर्न पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस-वे के निर्माण को गंभीरता से लिया। इसके बाद जाकर निर्माण कार्य शुरू करने की गति मिली।

135 किलोमीटर लंबा होगा हाइवे
राष्ट्रीय राजधानी दिल्ली से वाहनों का दबाव कम करने के लिए दिल्ली के चारों तरफ ईस्टर्न पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस-वे के निर्माण की योजना पांच साल पूर्व तैयार हुई थी। यह हाइवे हरियाणा के सोनीपत जिले से शुरू होकर बहादुरगढ़, बागपत, गाजियाबाद, गौतमबुद्ध नगर, फरीदाबाद, गुडगांव व पानीपत आदि जिलों की सीमा से होते हुए सोनीपत पहुंचेगा। इसकी लंबाई 135 किलोमीटर होगी और यह छह लेन का होगा।

2900 करोड़ रुपये खर्च का अनुमान
135 लंबे एक्सप्रेस-वे को बनाने पर करीब 29 सौ करोड़ रुपये की लागत आने का अनुमान है। इस पर 120 किलोमीटर प्रति घंटा की रफ्तार से वाहन दौडेंगे। इस खर्च को राष्ट्रीय राजमार्ग प्राधिकरण हाइवे के लिए कुल सात जिलों की
951 हेक्टेयर जमीन का अधिग्रहण किया गया है। इनमें गौतमबुद्धनगर जिले के सबसे ज्यादा 39 व गाजियाबाद के 16 गांवों की कुल 737 हेक्टेयर जमीन का अधिग्रहण किया गया है। हाइवे के लिए जमीन अधिग्रहण की प्रक्रिया 2008 में शुरू हो गई। मार्च 2009 से निर्माण कार्य शुरू हो गया था। जिले में राष्ट्रीय राजमार्ग प्राधिकरण किसानों को सर्किल रेट पर मुआवजा दे रहा था। किसानों ग्रेटर नोएडा की तर्ज पर मुआवजा व अन्य सुविधा की मांग को लेकर अड़ गए थे। बाद में मुआवजे को लेकर किसानों की प्राधिकरण के साथ सहमति बन गई थी। आबादी को लेकर विवाद लटका हुआ था। सपा सरकार ने पेरीफेरल के निर्माण में केंद्र सरकार को सहयोग देने का आश्वासन दिया है। इसके बाद जाकर निर्माण कार्य शुरू की प्रगति जमीन पर आई। सोमवार को नेशनल हाइवे अथॉरिटी ऑफ इंडिया (एनएचएआइ) ने निर्माण कार्य शुरू करने के लिए निविदा जारी कर दी गई। इससे उम्मीद है कि जल्द ही एक्सप्रेस-वे का निर्माण कार्य शुरू हो जाएगा। रिकॉर्ड में प्रशासन ने एक्सप्रेस-वे के लिए जमीन का कब्जा भी दे दिया। विवाद है, तो सुलझा लेंगे आबादी को लेकर किसानों के साथ कुछ विवाद है। इसको लेकर दो एक दिन में बैठक बुलाई गई हैं। उम्मीद है कि जल्द ही विवाद सुलझा लिया जाएगा। डॉ. एमकेएस सुंदरम (जिलाधिकारी) ग्रेटर नोएडा जुड़ेगा अन्य शहरों से पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस-वे का निर्माण होने से ग्रेटर नोएडा अन्य शहरों से जुड़ जाएगा। पेरीफेरल एक्सप्रेस-वे अट्टा गुजरान गांव के पास जाकर यमुना एक्सप्रेस-वे से जुड़ेगा। बील अकबरपुर गांव के पास जीटी रोड से जुड़ेगा। देहरादून से ग्रेटर नोएडा तक प्रस्तावित अपर गंगा कैनाल एक्सप्रेस-वे से भी हाइवे मिलेगा। एक्सप्रेस-वे से आने वाले लोग दादरी जीटी रोड पर उतर सकेंगे। जहां से बुलंदशहर और अलीगढ़ का रास्ता भी सुगम हो जाएगा। नोएडा व ग्रेटर नोएडा को जोड़ने वाला 130 मीटर रोड से भी एक्सप्रेस-वे पर जुड़ेगा, यानि ग्रेटर नोएडा से एनसीआर के सभी शहर सीधे जुड़ जाएंगे।

[pgarg2000]

This is BS. There is still not settlement between Ministry of Road & Transaport and Planning commsion for the toll rates

[pgarg2000]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-new ... 63184.aspx

New Delhi Delhi bypass project may start soon

Stuck since 2007, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) project — one half of the peripheral road around Delhi —may finally take off.

The reason for the delay was the government's inability to decide how much toll commuters should pay for using the proposed 135 km
stretch.

Along with the Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), which is being implemented by the Haryana government and is near completion, the EPE will complete the ring road around Delhi and provide an alternate route to traffic not bound for the Capital, thereby helping decongest Delhi roads.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to meet road minister CP Joshi and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on May 31 to decide the toll to be charged on the EPE.

"The core group headed by the finance minister was formed in February following directions from the Prime Minister's Office to resolve the toll dispute. It could not, however, meet so far because of the budget session," said a source.

While the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) and the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) have approved levying of normal toll rates on EPE at par with rates in other national highways, including the WPE, the road ministry wants to levy 50% more than the normal toll rate on the ground that the EPE is a bypass, not a highway. Bypass toll is 1.5 times higher than normal toll.

The move to levy more toll on the EPE has come under flak from senior Planning Commission officials, including former member secretary Sudha Pillai, and the finance ministry on the grounds that levying higher toll would go against "public interest" and make the project "unviable" vis-à-vis WPE. The delay has not only resulted in the EPE's cost escalating but has also resulted in loss of thousands of lives in accidents caused by outbound heavy and commercial vehicles passing through Delhi.

[dheerajjain]

In a coversation with Mr. S.S.Dhillon (Principal Secretrary, Urban Development, Haryana), I asked question about connectivity to NOIDA and FNG Expressway. He told clearly that there is no FNG expressway and no plans of Haryana currently to connect Faridabad with NOIDA. He said that NHAI is working on Eastern Peripheral Expressway which may provide some relief. But, Eastern Peripheral Expressway is looking a pipe dream and its fate remain undecided even after its conception 6 years back. In a crucial meeting of top Cabinet Ministers, fate is still undecided and ministers are unable to decide. That has become part of UPA 2 Govt. which is NOT able to take decision and economy of country is in deep trouble.

Source: Hindustan Times, 31st May
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-new ... 64162.aspx

Delhi commuters’ hope of getting relief from traffic jams caused by outbound heavy and commercial vehicles passing through the city roads seems to have got dashed, again. The much-needed 135km Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) project — one half of the peripheral road around Delhi to decongest city roads by providing an alternate route to traffic not bound for the Capital — has got further delayed.

The much-awaited meeting between finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, road minster CP Joshi and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday to decide how much toll commuters should pay for using the proposed EPE remained inconclusive.

The decision has been put on hold for now. Instead, the finance minister Thursday directed the road ministry to first frame a toll policy for expressways and get it approved by the cabinet.

As of now, only the existing National Highway Fee Rules, 2008 — toll is charged based on a 3% fixed rate plus 40% of yearly change in Wholesale Price Index — is applicable on highways and expressways.

“We have been asked to frame a separate toll policy for expressways and get it approved by the cabinet. Only after that a decision on EPE toll will be decided,” Joshi said

Recently, the road ministry had mooted a proposal to levy 50% more toll for traveling on hi-speed expressways.

The toll to be charged on the proposed EPE has become a bone of contention between different stakeholder ministries.

While the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure and the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee have approved levying of normal toll rates on EPE at par with rates in other national highways including WPE, the Road Ministry has been insistent on levying toll which is 50% more than the normal toll rate.

[pgarg2000]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/finan ... hi/959169/

Finance puts foot down, clears ring road to decongest Delhi
FTER being stuck for over five years, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) looks set to take off after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee prevailed upon Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to designate the 135-km-long peripheral road around Delhi as an “highway” and not a “bypass.”

The MoRTH has been directed to charge normal toll rates for an expressway rather than its earlier proposal to term the road a bypass and so charge a higher toll, officials said. The toll for a bypass road is 1.5 times the normal rate for a highway.

The EPE is to connect Kundli to Palwal in Haryana through Ghaziabad. Conceived in 2006 to divert non-Delhi bound traffic, the running dispute over the categorisation of the EPE as a “bypass” or an “highway” had ramifications in terms of the road section’s financial viability, considering that a parallel Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE) also connects Kundli to Palwal but goes through Manesar.

The WPE, designated as an expressway, is being implemented by the Haryana government and was awarded to DS Construction in 2008. The EPE and WPE, together, are envisaged to form a ring road on both sides of Delhi for channeling non-Delhi bound traffic without entering the national capital. If the EPE was considered as a bypass, its toll rates would be 96 per cent to 111 per cent higher than the WPE toll, forcing traffic onto the WPE.

The longstanding issue was resolved last week at a meeting of the group of ministers formed in February this year to resolve the toll dispute at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While it’s now up to MoRTH to award the project, it was impressed upon them in the meeting that it must be expedited as per directions of the Prime Minister.

The EPE has already been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure and the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee as an expressway project and they had called for levying of normal toll rates. While MoRTH earlier agreed with the Finance Ministry to call the EPE an expressway, it later changed its stance and and supported the Planning Commission position that the road was a bypass and so should have a higher toll rate.

Gajendra Haldea, adviser to Ahluwalia, argued that the project is mainly to regulate traffic which is going via Delhi and not to deal with traffic that’s originating from or terminating in Delhi. And that the EPE will be built at about Rs 4,049 crore or Rs 30 crore per kilometre as against the expenditure of Rs 6-Rs 10 per km for a normal national highway.

The Centre’s planned package involves a loan to pay off the principal amount of Rs 7424 crore, spreading out the payment over 20 years. North Block mandarins have worked out Rs 1960 crore that the state could get through a three-year moratorium on the replayment. Add to this, another Rs 1300 crore as debt relief because the state has not claimed a debt waiver under the FRBM Act. To top it up, the Centre is willing help negotiate and secure a Rs 500- crore loan from the Asian Development Bank. In all, this works out to about Rs 12000 crore.

Insiders, however, say the state government may not be satisfied with this as its political demand is for a complete moratorium on all payment and a “generous” gesture from the Centre to take on some of the debts. The Centre has conveyed at several levels that it cannot make exceptions by taking on the state’s loans but was willing to help.

Even this package, sources said, will stretch the government’s resources and is bound to invite opposition from other states, but one which the Centre is willing to announce at an appropriate time. But will that make Banerjee happy enough and, therefore, Roy a bit more polite and accommodating? This is a question to which the UPA leadership has still no definite answer.