RANCHI: Construction of two smart roads – 2.55 km stretch from Birsa Munda Airport to Birsa Chowk and an 8.85 km stretch from Birsa Chowk to Raj Bhavan in Ranchi started on January 22, 2019. In total, four smart roads were proposed and the work on the third proposed road from Raj Bhavan to Kantatoli Chowk, a stretch of 2.88 km will begin within the next 3 to 4 days, while the tender for construction of the fourth road, a 7.4 km stretch, from Raj Bhavan to Booty More is under process.
The estimated cost of construction of Airport to Birsa Chowk road is around Rs 42.52 crore, road from Birsa Chowk to Raj Bhavan has the estimated cost of Rs 162.7 crore while road from Raj Bhavan to Kantatoli Chowk will be constructed at a cost of Rs 92.99 crore.
Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company Limited (JUIDCO) is supervising the entire construction.
According to a JUIDCO official, the new construction will bring in the design of the roads which will help reduce traffic jams and will provide separate pathway for cyclists and pedestrians.
Ajoy Kumar Singh, Secretary, Urban Development Department, assured that the addition of the pathways will not reduce the width of these roads. Singh added that there are vacant government lands near these roads, which will be used to increase the width of the road and future measures would be taken to widen the roads, if needed.
Utility ducts will be underneath the smart roads which will include electricity lines, phone lines, other type of optical fibers, LPG pipeline, and drinking water pipeline as well as a sewerage and drainage pipeline. None of the wires or the drains will be visible in the open after the construction is completed.
The four-lane road, with one divider at a gap of two lanes will have the minimum width of 7 meters while the maximum would be 9 meters, excluding the width of cycle tracks and footpaths on both the sides. The roads will also have LED street lights, signage and also benches and vendor stalls on the sides where a wider area is available.