Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has approved Rs 2,125.55 crore to upgrade the 196-km Nageshri-Amreli-Chotila stretch of National Highway 351G, a road that cuts across Amreli, Rajkot and Surendranagar districts. Gadkari announced the sanction on X on October 3, DeshGujarat reported. The project will be built under the hybrid annuity model.
Mostly two lanes, four where traffic chokes
The sanction does not turn the whole road into a four-lane highway. Most of the 196 km will become a two-lane carriageway with paved shoulders. Three sections get four lanes with paved shoulders, according to Gujarat First and DeshGujarat:
- the Amreli bypass,
- the Jasdan-Atkot-Babra section,
- the stretch through Chotila town.
Those choices track where through traffic meets town traffic. Amreli is a district headquarters. Jasdan and Atkot sit in Rajkot district and Babra in Amreli district. Chotila, at the northern end, sits on the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway and draws heavy pilgrim crowds to the Chamunda Mata temple on its hill. Both outlets cited congestion and road accidents on the existing alignment as reasons for the upgrade.
A cross-Saurashtra link
Nageshri, the southern end, is a village in Jafrabad taluka of Amreli district, near the Arabian Sea coast. The road therefore runs from the southern coastal belt of Saurashtra up through its cotton and groundnut country to the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway at Chotila. A driver heading from Amreli to Ahmedabad on this route joins the state’s busiest highway at Chotila without entering Rajkot city. Paved shoulders along the two-lane stretches give tractors and two-wheelers room to pull aside for trucks and buses, a common source of crashes on narrow rural highways.
What the hybrid annuity model means
Under the hybrid annuity model, the government pays 40% of the project cost to the contractor during construction. The developer raises the rest and recovers it, with interest, through annuity payments from the government spread over 15 years after completion. Motorists do not pay tolls to the developer; any toll on the road goes to the government.
What residents should watch
The announcement gives no construction timeline. The next steps are the tender, the award to a developer and the appointed date when work begins. Commuters between Amreli, Babra and Jasdan should expect diversions once work starts on the four-lane sections, which are also the busiest. Land acquisition for the bypass and four-lane sections is the step most likely to set the pace. Until the ministry publishes bid documents, cost per kilometre and completion dates remain unknown.
Sources: DeshGujarat, Gujarat First
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.