New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the construction of the 4-lane access-controlled National Highway 927 from Barabanki to Bahraich, stretching across 101.515 km in Uttar Pradesh, with an investment of Rs 6969.04 crore on hybrid annuity mode (HAM).
The proposed upgradation of the Barabanki–Bahraich section of NH-927 in Uttar Pradesh will address severe geometric deficiencies, sharp curves, and congestion in built-up areas across the Barabanki and Bahraich districts. Designed as an access-controlled 4-lane highway with continuous service roads, the project will bypass major habitations, increase average travel speeds, reduce travel time to about one hour, and improve overall road safety, fuel efficiency, and vehicle operating costs, thereby enhancing regional mobility and socio-economic development, according to a Cabinet note.
The project provides seamless connectivity to key economic, social, and logistics nodes across the state. Additionally, the upgraded corridor will enhance multi-modal integration by connecting with three Economic Nodes, two Social Nodes, and 12 Logistics Nodes, providing enhanced multimodality with Rupaidiha Land Port and Airports, thereby facilitating faster movement of goods and passengers across the region, it said.
Upon completion, the project will strategically establish a vital cross-border trade and transit corridor between India and Nepal via the Nepalganj border, significantly improving access to the Rupaidiha Land Port. It will enhance connectivity to remote districts such as Bahraich and Shravasti, support PM GatiShakti economic and logistics nodes, and stimulate agri-trade, tourism, cross-border commerce, and regional investment.
The project has been approved in a hybrid annuity model (HAM), which is a public-private partnership (PPP) framework used for infrastructure development, combining Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) (40 per cent government-funded) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) (60 per cent private-funded) models. It reduces financial burden on developers by offering stable, annuity-based, inflation-indexed returns while the government retains revenue risk.
This is the second major highway project cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs this month, coming close on the heels of the approval of the revised total capital cost of Rs 3630.77 crore, on March 10, for the construction of greenfield connectivity to Jewar International Airport from Delhi-Faridabad-Ballabhgarh-Sohna Spur of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway on hybrid annuity mode in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
This 31.42 km long project corridor will provide direct and high-speed connectivity from south Delhi, Faridabad and Gurugram to Jewar International Airport, thereby promoting economic growth and logistics efficiency across the National Capital Region (NCR).
(IANS)
