PANAJI: The Minister for PWD, Mr Churchill Alemao on Tuesday said that the work on four/six laning of the national highway 17 and national highway 4A will start in March and added that the road widening will be done in built-operate and transfer (BOT) module.

Addressing a press conference along with the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat, Mr Alemao said that the entire stretch of NH-17 from Maharastra-Goa border having a length of 139 km across the state has been approved for widening to four/six lane under the NHDP phase III.
“Similarly, the entire stretch of NH-4A from Goa-Karnataka border to Panaji has also been approved for 4-lanning,” he added.
The PWD Minister said that the pre-construction activities including land acquisition, environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Goa State Coastal Zone Management Authority have already been initiated.
He said that the preparation of feasibility cum preliminary design report by consultancy firm has been completed and the cost of widening NH-17 will be approximately Rs 1438 crore while the widening of NH-4A will cost Rs 415.59 crore.
He also said that there is a proposal for construction of four new major bridges — third bridge over the Mandovi, another parallel bridge over the Zuari, and bridges at Galgibag and Talpona.
“That apart four bypasses have also been proposed at Goa Velha (5.30 km), Margao (11.2 km), Cuncolim (8.17 km) and Canacona (8.45 km).
Mr Alemao said that only 41 per cent of the total 743 hectare of land is available for broadening of NH 17 with 442 hectare of land yet to be acquired before awarding the project and added that while only 64 per cent of land is available for the broadening of NH-4A with 132 hectare of land yet to be acquired out of the total of 364 hectare.
He said that special land acquisition units will be set up in both North and South Goa to expedite the acquisition work as 80 per cent of the land has to be made available before awarding the work.
He also informed that the letter of acceptance is likely to be handed over to the contractor on March 31 and that the notification has to be completed before the proposed date. The tenders will be opened on December 21.