The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to submit an undertaking that it would abide by the recommendations of the expert panel set up by the Lake Development Authority on the protection of five lakes in the City.

The Environment Support Group had filed an impleading application to the petition filed by well-known bird expert Zafar Fatehully, objecting to the NHAI proposal to construct a service road over the Hunasamaranahalli Lake.

Committee reviews progress of work

The Kerala Water Authority informed an Assembly Committee here on Tuesday that the Alappuzha Drinking Water Project, envisaged to provide drinking water to Alappuzha municipality and eight surrounding panchayats, would be ready for commissioning by 2013.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure approved the implementation four-laning of Yamunanaga-Panchkula section on National Highway-73 in Haryana, on Thursday. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has already floated an e-tender for the four-laning of the 104 kilometer NH from Yamunanaga to Panchkula. With the approval of the Cabinet Committee, the work on the project is likely to start soon.

While the inauguration of the Pinjore- Parwanoo bypass road has been delayed due to safety reasons, the Himachal Pradesh government has been hit by another problem - the inability to locate a site for a excise and taxation toll barrier on the proposed road stretch. The Himachal excise and taxation department and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had identified a site in Dipra village for the toll barrier, but the state’s forest department refused to give its clearance for any construction at the proposed site.

Contiguous availability for road development may be a problem still. Amidst all the noise of land acquisitions delaying highway projects, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is inching closer to acquiring a record 10,000-12,000 hectares in the current fiscal. This is the largest ever land acquisition in a year by the highways regulator.

Yet, this may not be music to many developers because even the large figure does not automatically translate into proportional increase in contiguous land available for development.

Highways authority to discard public-private partnership model for EPC contract. The National Highways Authority of India plans to award construction orders worth up to . 15,000 crore in the next fiscal, deviating from its strategy of awarding projects through the public-private partnership route.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is studying the feasibility of widening the 268 km stretch of NH 209 (Dindigul to Coimbatore and Coimbatore to Karnataka border via Annur) into a four-lane road. The detailed project report is likely to be prepared by March next.

National Highways Authority of India organises public hearing on realignment

Farmers from villages in the outskirts of the City have opposed the proposed move to build the bypass road, to come up as part of the widening of the Tiruchi-Karur section of National Highway 67, cutting across fertile agricultural lands.

Members of the Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangham along with their family members staged a demonstration opposing the proposed move to acquire lands for laying a 60-km bypass road from Kangeyampalayam to Mettupalayam.

The demonstrators led by the Sangham President M.R. Sivasamy pointed out that instead a bypass road in a shorter and straight alignment could be laid in 34-km distance.

The State government, which has already borrowed about $650 million from external sources to upgrade some of the major roads and State highways, recently made additional borrowings of $15 million to implement road works of 3,411 km in the State.

The roads, the upgrading of which was taken up under the Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project–II (KSHIP-II), will all be tolled, once completed.