Union Cabinet may okay four-lane bridge across Narmada in Gujarat.

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Thursday is likely to clear construction of a new four-lane bridge across Narmada river in Bharuch on the Vadodara-Surat stretch of NH-8 in Gujarat. The project will be taken up with complete government funding.

Besides the four-lane bridge, overbridges on the two approach roads from Jhagadia and Bharuch city would also be built as part of the six-laning of the 6.7 km stretch. The project will need at least Rs 500 crore, sources said.

Earlier, this project was bagged by a subsidiary of infrastructure major Hindustan Construction Company, which had offered annual upfront revenue of Rs 222 crore to National Highways Authority of India. The company was entrusted with the task of developing and operating for 12 years by collecting toll.

But after the contract was signed between NHAI and the company, the private developer failed to arrange fund from banks and financial institutions to start work. Finally, it walked out of the project this year paying penalty.

The construction of new bridge is crucial since the stretch serves traffic from the ports of Hazira and Dahej, besides catering to industrial traffic from Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Surat regions and Dahej SEZ. This is among the final stretches to be expanded to six-lane capacity on NH-8. "Though at present there is one bridge, it's not in good shape. The new bridge is a long overdue," said a highways ministry official.

The proposed bridge is expected to reduce frequent traffic jams on this stretch connecting Mumbai to Delhi.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com​