The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the construction of a new coastal highway from Rameshwar to Paradeep in Odisha under the Hybrid Annuity Model.
The project will be developed in two packages with a combined length of 160.18 Km and a total capital cost of ₹8,300.79 crore.
The highway will pass through Khurda, Puri, Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur districts.
It is aimed at improving travel efficiency, regional mobility and freight movement along Odisha’s coastal belt.
The first package will cover the Rameshwar-Konark section as a 4-lane access-controlled highway.
It will have a length of 79.40 Km, including 2.560 Km of brownfield length and 76.840 Km of greenfield length.
The second package will cover the Konark-Paradeep section as a 2-lane highway with paved shoulders. It will have a length of 80.78 Km, all of which will be greenfield.
The project will be designed for a speed of 100 Km per hour and is expected to reduce travel time between Rameshwar and Paradeep by about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Read also: India approves ₹9,585 crore scheme to replace old trucks and buses in Delhi-NCR
According to the Cabinet release, the existing NH-16 is part of the Golden Quadrilateral and already functions as a 6-lane highway through Khordha, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
The existing NH-316 connects Bhubaneswar with Puri and extends towards Satapada and Konark.
However, the Puri-Satapada and Puri-Konark stretches have poor road geometry, nearly 40 per cent ribbon development and heavy roadside local commuter traffic, making the corridor unsuitable for smooth long-distance vehicular movement.
The latest project is aligned with PM GatiShakti principles and will connect nine economic nodes and five logistic nodes.
The government said this will have a positive impact on the country’s Logistics Performance Index.
The economic nodes include two SEZs at Bhubaneswar and Khordha’s Khandagiri, mega food parks in Bhubaneswar, fishing clusters at Paradeep, Konark, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Kendrapada, and a pharma cluster in Cuttack.
The logistic nodes include Puri Railway Station, Puri Airport, Astarang Port, Paradeep Port and the Multi-Modal Logistics Park at Jagatsinghpur.
The project is expected to generate 53.61 lakh man-days of direct employment and 67.01 lakh man-days of indirect employment.
The total concession period for both packages will be 17.5 years, including 2.5 years for construction and 15 years for operation and maintenance.
For Package I, the total capital cost is ₹5,304.80 crore, while Package II will cost ₹2,995.99 crore.
The total civil cost has been estimated at ₹3,129.06 crore for Package I and ₹1,566.02 crore for Package II.
The expected annual average daily traffic during 2027-28 is estimated at 10,437 passenger car units for Package I, including 9,236 tollable PCUs.
For Package II, it is estimated at 7,249 passenger car units, including 6,369 tollable PCUs.
