The Goa Public Works Department (PWD) has tendered the project for four-laning the Ribandar bypass road starting from the Panaji-Merces junction to the Ela junction in Old Goa. The project involves four-laning of 9.7 km stretch of the NH 4-A and the government has sanctioned the project for an amount of 126.1 crore.
The PWD has received two bids but pre-qualification, scrutiny of technical and financial bids, clearance by the works advisory board and issue of work order will take another month. The project has been dubbed a ‘model corridor’ as the government wants to use this as a model to show the public what a four-lane road in Goa will look like.
Goa has seen opposition to the widening of the national highways due to perceived threat to houses, etc. The Panaji-Old Goa ‘model corridor’ will actually have a total of six lanes-three lanes on one side separated by a central median. While two lanes on either side will be for 4-wheelers, the third lane will be dedicated to 2-wheelers.
The width of the road on one side will be 10.5m. The existing bridge of pipes will be rebuilt as a proper bridge. While the bridge length over the river is about 80m, it will have another 120m span on the Ribandar side. The cost of the bridge alone is estimated to be around 33-crore. The model corridor is supposed to be a showpiece with special lighting, modern traffic signages and other features.
The government already has land of 45 m width along the road, so no further land acquisition is required.
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