Golden Quadrilateral

The Golden Quadrilateral ( hi, स्वर्णिम चतुर्भुज, Svarnim Chaturbhuj; abbreviated GQ) is a national highway network connecting several major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. It forms a quadrilateral with all the four major metro cities of India forming the vertices, viz., Delhi (north), Kolkata (east), Mumbai (west) and Chennai (south). Other major cities connected by this network include Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Balasore, Bhadrak, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Durgapur, Guntur, Jaipur, Kanpur, Pune, Kolhapur, Surat, Vijayawada, Ongole, Ajmer, Vizag, Bodhgaya, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Agra, Mathura, Dhanbad, Gandhinagar, Udaipur, and Vadodara. The main objective of these super highways is to reduce the travel time between the major cities of India, running roughly along the perimeter of the country. The North–South corridor linking Srinagar ( Jammu and Kashmir) and Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), and East–West corridor linking Silchar (Assam) and Porbandar (Gujarat) are additional projects. These highway projects are implemented by the National Highway Authority Of India (NHAI). At , it is the largest highway project in India and the fifth longest in the world. It is the first phase of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), and consists of two, four, and six-lane express highways, built at a cost of . The project was planned in 1999, launched in 2001, and was completed in July 2013.

The Golden Quadrilateral project is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. The vast majority of the system is not access controlled, although safety features such as guardrails, shoulders, and high-visibility signs are in use. The Mumbai–Pune Expressway, the first controlled-access toll road to be built in India, is a part of the GQ Project but not funded by NHAI, and is separate from the old Mumbai–Pune section of National Highway 48 (India). Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has been one of the major contributors to the infrastructural development activity in the GQ project.

History and costs

The Golden Quadrilateral Project (GQ Project) was intended to establish faster transport networks between major cities and ports, provide smaller towns better access to markets, reduce agricultural spoilage in transport, drive economical growth, and promote truck transport.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid the foundation stone for the project on 6 January 1999. It was planned to be completed by 2006, but there were delays due to land acquisition constraints and disputes with contractors which had to be renegotiated.

India's government had initially estimated that the Golden Quadrilateral project would cost at 1999 prices. However, the highway was built under-budget. As of August 2011, the cost incurred by the Indian government was about half of the initial estimate, at . The eight contracts in progress, as of August 2011, were worth .

In January 2012, India announced the four-lane GQ highway network as complete. In September 2009, it was announced that the existing four-laned highways would be converted into six-lane highways. Sections of NH 2, NH 4, NH 5 and NH 8 were prioritized for widening to six lanes under DBFO (Design, Build, Finance, Operate) pattern and more sections would be six-laned in the future. On NH 8 six-lane work was completed from Vadodara to Surat.

Route

Only National Highways are used in the Golden Quadrilateral. The four legs use the following National Highways (new numbering system):

* Delhi – Kolkata: NH 44 from Delhi to Agra & NH 19 from Agra to Kolkata
* Delhi – Mumbai – Chennai: NH 48
* Kolkata – Chennai: NH 16

Connected cities

Length in each state

The completed Golden Quadrilateral passes through 12 states and a union territory:

* Andhra Pradesh –
* Uttar Pradesh –
* Rajasthan –
* Karnataka –
* Maharashtra –
* Gujarat –
* Odisha –
* West Bengal –
* Tamil Nadu –
* Bihar –
* Jharkhand –
* Haryana –
* Delhi –
* Total –

Corruption allegations

In August 2003, Jharkhand-based project director Satyendra Dubey, in a letter to the prime minister, outlined a list of bad faith (''mala fide'') actions in a segment of a highway in Bihar. Dubey's claims included that big contractors had inside information from NHAI officials,
Bihar govt wakes up to IITian's murder-Source-Rediff News that the contractors for this stretch were not executing the project themselves (as stipulated in the contract) but had been subcontracting the work to small builders who lacked technical expertise, and that no follow-up was performed after awarding advances. Dubey's name was leaked by the prime minister's office to the NHAI, and he was transferred against his wishes to Gaya, India, Gaya, Bihar, where he was murdered on 27 November.

The NHAI eventually admitted that Dubey's allegations were substantiated, and implemented "radical reforms" in the selection and contract procedures. After considerable Central Bureau of Investigation scrutiny, Mantu Kumar and three accomplices were arrested and charged with murder. Mantu escaped from court on 19 September 2005,
Whistleblower in the 2004 National Highway Authority of India case escaped from police custody on Tuesday in Patna-Source-Rediff News but was recaptured a month later. In 2010, Mantu and two others were convicted of murder and other offenses and sentenced to life in prison.
Satyendranath Dubey killers get life imprisonment-Source-Oneindia. com

See also

; Similar rail development
* Future of rail transport in India, rail development

; Similar roads development
* Bharatmala
** Diamond Quadrilateral, Subsumed in Bharatmala
** National Highways Development Project, Subsumed in Bharatmala
** North-South and East-West Corridor, Subsumed in Bharatmala
* India-China Border Roads, Subsumed in Bharatmala
* Expressways of India
* Setu Bharatam, river road bridge development in India

; Similar ports and river transport development
* Indian Rivers Inter-link
* List of National Waterways in India
* Sagar Mala project, national water port development connectivity scheme

; Similar air transport development
* Indian Human Spaceflight Programme
* UDAN, national airport development connectivity scheme

; Highways in India
* List of National Highways in India by highway number
* List of National Highways in India

; General
* Transport in India

References

Further reading

*
Fast Lane to the Future
', Don Belt. ''National Geographic'', October, 2008.

External links

'Mile by Mile, India Paves a Smoother Future'
– extremely detailed ''New York Times'' article, dated 4 December 2005 (''free registration required'')

"''Golden Quadrilateral still has miles to go''"
– Financial Express article dated 26 August 2005

Official website of the National Highways Authority of India



Ministry of Road Transport

{{Indian Highways Network

Proposed roads in India
Vajpayee administration initiatives
National highways in India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
1999 establishments in India