Opinion Highway to the future

In a short span of 10 years the city of Hyderabad has become an international hub for investments in IT and IT-enabled services,biotechnology,pharmaceuticals,and health services,besides becoming a centre for higher education and professional institutions such as the Indian School of Business,the National Law School and many colleges of engineering. This has generated a rapidly increasing demand for commercial,industrial,institutional and recreational spaces,and a growing demand for residential housing.

Planning for urban development to accommodate these demands required an urgent focus on transport and road network. The inner ring road had become a part of the city network system over the years. There was an urgent need for an outer bypass system that would divert traffic not destined for the city and ease congestion which would otherwise become a serious deterrent for investment and growth. The outer ring road project does just that.

Within the area encircled by the outer ring road,33 radial roads have been identified connecting the inner ring road with the outer ring road,of which 6 have been completed and five have been taken up for construction. The radial roads will provide easy access to the airport road,IT parks,SEZs and other developments surrounding the Greater Hyderabad area. Roads have been planned in alignment with National Highways and State Highways,thereby ensuring connectivity with the wider region. The result is that Mumbai is connected to Bangalore via Hyderabad,and Vijayawada is also connected with Mumbai via Hyderabad.

Future satellite townships are being planned along the 1-km stretch growth corridor on either side of the ring with a view to attracting business parks,technology clusters,etc,and appropriate taxation of these should help finance the remaining infrastructure for the region. While development regulations have been prepared for this belt in line with the plans of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA),it is important to ensure that the regulations are objective,transparent and clearly enforced.

The eight-lane expressway is designed to host moving vehicles of up to 120 km per hour speed. Trees are being planted to deflect the glare on the roads. To manage the high speed movement of vehicles,a traffic management system is planned,as is a toll management system. Toll-free service roads are provided on either side of the expressway. There is provision for utility ducts to ensure that the roads are not dug up in the future.

The first phase of the expressway was opened in July 2010 with 24 km running from Gachibowli to Shamshabad. The first part of the second phase of 63 km is to be completed by April and the second part of the second phase covering 71 km is expected to be completed by December 2012. In all,the ring road crisscrosses five national highways,five state highways and five major district roads,and connects new urban nodes outside Hyderabad — Hi-Tech City,the Games Village,Hardware Park,IT Park,Nano Park and the Indian School of Business.

Plans are in place to link the existing railway lines of the eastern and western corridors of the Hyderabad metropolitan area,and connect the existing network of the Northern and Southern Railways. Terminals and parking lots for trucks will be located at intersections of the ring road connecting national with state highways. A 25-km stretch has been earmarked for an integrated network of metro rail and buses.

The outer ring road is a fine example of regional planning by the government of Andhra Pradesh. The (HMDA was created in 2008 by merging the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority,Cyberabad Development Authority and the Hyderabad Airport Development Authority,with a total jurisdiction of 7,100 sq km.

Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) was set up as a special purpose vehicle to serve as the executing agency of the project to build the outer ring road. HGCL is a fully publicly held company with 74 per cent shares with HMDA and 26 per cent with Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (INCAP). The Metropolitan Commissioner of the HMDA is the chairman of the HGCL Board. The company is headed by a managing director who also acts as a Special Collector to aid in the land acquisition process,along with a team of land acquisition officers.

Of the total project cost of Rs 6,696 crore,the first phase of Rs 699 crore was financed through loans from a consortium of commercial banks led by the Bank of Baroda. The first part of the second phase costing Rs 2,439 crore is being implemented on a PPP basis.

Following global tenders,the contracts were awarded to five concessionaires. A build-operate-transfer (BOT) annuity model was used covering a twelve-and-a-half year concession period,with 20 per cent of the project cost provided as grant by the HMDA. The second part of the second phase is being financed by a long-term (30 year) loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at an interest rate of 1.2 per cent per annum,10-year moratorium on payment,and sovereign guarantee. The loan from JICA of Rs 3,123 crore financed most of the project cost of Rs 3,558 crore for this phase.

The toll rates proposed by HGCL are currently under review by the state government. Impact fee on building permissions and new developments is expected to contribute significantly to revenue generation,which will help in repayment of the loan and finance the project.

As regards land acquisition,cash compensation amounting to two to three times the value of the land was given to families who sold their land. In cases where land was preferred by the seller in exchange,compensatory plots of 75 per cent of the area were provided. A few cases of disputes on land acquisition are pending in the high court and the Supreme Court.

As the process of urbanisation gathers momentum across the country,there is greater need for regional planning with due regard for connectivity within the region and across the regions. The HGCL shows the way. Since land values would increase substantially on account of development of the ring road and change in land use,ways should be found for ensuring an equitable sharing of the additional value between land owners and the government so as to enable the latter to finance the large investments required for developing an expanded city of this nature.

hluwalia is chair of Icrier and of the high powered expert committee on urban infrastructure. Nair is a consultant to the committee. This is the 13th in a monthly series on urban infrastructure postcardsofchange@expressindia.com