NHAI starts work on Rs6,672 cr expressway

The expressway itself will be 400km long and will cost around Rs16.68 crore per km New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India, or NHAI, has started preliminary work on awarding its biggest contra-ct yet, worth Rs6,672 crore, for an expressway between Vadodara in Gujarat and Mumbai.Gujarat is among the most industrialized states in the country and a major hub for petrochemical and chemical companies. Mumbai is the country’s financial and commercial capital and is also home to India’s busiest port. The Vadodara-Gujarat route is a busy one in terms of freight traffic.Last year, NHAI awarded two contracts to IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd and Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) to upgrade stretches of highway between Bharuch and Surat and Vadodara and Baruch, respectively. These stretches are part of the existing highway between Mumbai and Vadodara that runs parallel to the proposed expressway.Officials in NHAI admit that traffic on the route is growing at a scorching pace.“We were always aware that an expressway would be built between Mumbai and Vadodara,” said V.D. Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director of IRB Infrastructure.The expressway itself will be 400km long and will cost around Rs16.68 crore per km. The largest contract awarded before this by NHAI was for Rs2,500 crore to build a highway between Panipat and Jalandhar, according to A.V. Sinha, member (technical), NHAI.NHAI, the regulator for the Indian highways sector and the entity responsible for the award of contracts to build roads, will appoint a consultant for the project and decide on other contours of the expressway by July. The call for bids will come after that and the expressway is expected to be completed by 2015.As is the case with most NHAI projects, the expressway will be built on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis wh-ere a private developer builds the road, operates it for a certain period, and then transfers ownership to the state.“The expressway will charge around 30% more in toll rates and, so, not all vehicles would shift to the expressway (from the highway),” said Sinha.The stretches owned by the IRB and L&T consortia are currenly being upgraded and are expected to be completed by July 2009.“There is a revenue share agreement between NHAI and us that if traffic exceeds 108,000 vehicles per day, we share that with the authority. By the time this expressway is built, we would have reached that mark,” Mhaiskar said.Mhaiskar estimated current traffic in the Bharuch-Surat stretch at between 60,000 and 70,000 vehicles per day.Source: http://www.livemint.com

Uttar Pradesh govt plans five more expressways

Combined length of 1,400km proposed; roads will be in vicinity of highways being developed by NHAI

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning five more expressways in the state even before it signs the concession agreement for the Rs40,000 crore Ganga Expressway project awarded in January.

And yet again, just as in the case of the Ganga Expressway, the proposed highways are coming up in the vicinity of the highways being developed by the National Highways Authority of India, or NHAI, the roads regulator.

“We will not approach the Centre for any kind of assistance in funding. As in the case of the Ganga Expressway, we will raise resources for these projects by leveraging land,” said an official, who was involved in the planning of the Ganga Expressway project as well, but did not wish to be identified.

Country roads: The Greater Noida expressway. UP had awarded the tender for the Rs40,000 crore Ganga Expressway project, which will connect Greater Noida with Baflia, to Jaypee Infratech Ltd in January. (Madhu Kapparath / Mint)

The tender for the Ganga Expressway project, which will connect Greater Noida with Ballia, was awarded to Jaypee Infratech Ltd in January. The concessionaire is expected to be leased around 7,000ha of land for commercial development in order to construct the expressway.

Jaypee had sought land worth Rs293.55 crore for property development along the expressway in order to construct the expressway.

The five proposed expressways will have a combined length of around 1,400km.

“We do not have a clear idea as to how much land will be required to be set aside for these projects, but we will be able to work out those details only after a few months,” the same official said.

The proposed expressways include the Greater Noida-Saharanpur-Dehradun (in partnership with the Uttarakhand state government) stretch apart from Jhansi-Lucknow, Lucknow-Gorakhpur, Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow and Farrukhabad-Kotdwar expressways.

The proposal for these projects is being developed by the state public works department. “First we will seek environmental clearance for these projects and then the proposals will go to the state cabinet for approval,” the official said.

Planning Commission member Anwarul Hoda said that the apex planning organization in the country has not yet been informed about the state’s plans to go in for more expressways. “We have not been told about these projects,” he said.

Earlier, the Planning Commission had held discussions with the UP administration on the Ganga Expressway project in order to see whether the project linked up with existing highway networks in the state. It gave the go-ahead despite the overlap with the highways being developed by NHAI.

“Tolling on these roads will barely pay for operations and management expenses,” said a consultant with a project management company, who did not wish to be quoted. “Remember, these roads are along the same alignment as existing NHAI national highways, which means traffic is going to be shared. So, the capital cost recovery will come from the land component only. If you are in the business of building highways, then why do you need all this land.”

Source: http://www.livemint.com

A capital cost of capacity

Demand is growing faster than anticipated. And there is such dearth of infrastructure that new capacities will be absorbed promptly

Last month, the showpiece urban transportation project, the 28km Delhi-Gurgaon expressway was inaugurated. Another big-ticket project, Bangalore International Airport Ltd, is set to begin operations in March. In the case of the expressway, traffic on the first day was what was projected for 2013. In Bangalore, the passenger traffic will cross 11.3 million—a number initially projected for 2015—by the end of the year. In both cases, capacities for the first year are inadquate.

Clearly, the project planners in both instances got their projections quite wrong. But, if one steps back, a more complex picture emerges. The most obvious fact is that demand is growing faster than anticipated. And there is such dearth of infrastructure that new capacities will be absorbed promptly. In contrast, China seems to be a case of excess capacities.

Another factor being debated is that this is not a simple case of an owner-operator failing to anticipate traffic. Any entrepreneur would see the obvious and plan for it. Instead, it is argued, given the cost of capital, one shouldn’t expect anything different. Our real interest rate—corrected for inflation—is about 7%, probably among the highest in the world. Hence, the entrepreneur’s action would be an error of commission—to minimise project risk.

The other side of the coin is that the pricing of public services is subsidized, largely to ensure that the less well off can avail the benefits. In other words, far more people can afford to consume these services than otherwise. While not making a case for leaving out these segments, there is need to strike a correction.

The reason is simple.

Subsidized consumption, like other political largesse, comes at a fiscal cost. Not only does this push up the cost of capital, it also—since government borrowings inevitably expand money supply—stokes inflationary pressures, hurting the very people that the government set about protecting. In China it is the opposite, where fiscal profligacy subsidizes investment.

Both extremes are unsustainable. Given India’s mixed socio-economic demography, there is a case for revisiting subsidized consumption. A good beginning would be if the political parties arrive at a consensus that ensures bad economics will no longer be passed off as sensitive politics.

A precedent exists. Gujarat, in the early 1990s, had come out with a document detailing an all-party commitment to structural reforms in the state. That no doubt underlines the economic success of the state over the past decade.

Source: livemint.com

State government refuses to reveal land rates for Ganga Expressway

Lucknow, February 28 The state government today refused to inform the assembly the rates of compensation for land acquisition in the Ganga Expressway project.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma maintained that compensation will be according to the agreement between the farmers and developers.But he refused to clarify if the price offered will be the circle rate, market rate or a mutually negotiated rate.The government also refused to reply why the farmers in Agra — whose land is being acquired for the Taj Expressway Project — were being forced by the administration to accept a compensation of Rs 2-3 lakh per hectare, when the market rate was over Rs 40 lakh per hectare.Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, RLD member Dharm Singh alleged that the farmers were brutally beaten up by the police PAC when they went to meet the divisional commissioner to lodge their protest on February 24. He also alleged that the farmers are being pressurised by the local administration and police to accept the cheques.Denying any incident of lathicharge on farmers in Agra, Verma, however, did not comment on the compensation rate.Earlier, the minister had assured the assembly that work on the ambitious Rs 40,000 crore Ballia-Greater Noida Ganga Expressway will start only after getting the No Objection Certificates from different departments — environment, pollution board, forest and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).He said the developer had been directed by the government to get the NOCs before commencing work. “The condition is there in the agreement made with the developer,” he added.The minister also contradicted the Opposition claim that over 21 lakh trees will be felled for the project. “There is no question of cutting down a large number of trees. Besides, the mega project will free over 3.40 lakh hectares of land from the grip of floods,” he underlined.Answering a question on industrial development in the state, the minister said between March 2004 and March 2007, investment amounting to Rs 5555.30 crore has been flowed in.Without giving details, he said 347 big and medium industrial units had been set up in that period.Asked how the government will meet the target of Rs 5 lakh crore investment in the next 5 yrs, he said bad law and order in the past was the chief reason behind the dismal progress of investment. Source:  http://www.expressindia.com

South India�s road to future may soon be completed

South India�s much-touted road to the future may be finally here. Industry in Bangalore is pushing for the completion of the expressway between the city and Mysore.

After 13 years, work is speeding up on the road connecting Bangalore and Mysore, popularly known as the Bangalore Mysore infrastructure corridor or BMIC. The road will cut the driving time from the three and half hours to just 90 minutes.

The BMIC is still mired in controversy over land acquisition but all that may change soon. We hear from sources that the governor of Karnataka is taking a special interest in the project and the sudden activity on the project is partly due to pressure from the industry. Sources say the governor is speeding up land acquisition and clearances from forest, revenue and other departments. And though nice officials declined to comment on camera, they say they are glad that industry is finally taking a stand.

“I think it’s the single most important project for Bangalore. It will not only provide more employment but also improve the quality of life of the people of Bangalore. ” says Mohandas Pai, director-HR, Infosys.

“If you want private players to develop roads, the government has to address these land issues very seriously.” Adds  Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon.

The Nandi infrastructure corridor enterprise had envisaged a four-phase project that included a 111-km super expressway to Mysore with 5 satellite towns on the way, a 41 km peripheral ring road on the outskirts of Bangalore and a 9.5 km connecting road to the expressway.

Today only two stretches of the peripheral ring road are open and the company is not collecting toll, as the link is not complete. But despite losses of over Rs 10 crore a month,  officials are glad there’s been some progress.

Source: moneycontrol.com

India’s Largest Toll Plaza – Delhi-Gurgaon

Kapsch Metro JV has commissioned the Delhi Gurgaon Expressway with 3 Toll Plazas with a total of 59 toll lanes. The largest toll plaza has a total of 32 + 4 reversible toll lanes.

The Project has a total of 24 ETC with some of them mixed type with cash and smart card facility ; the remaining being cash and smart Card type.

All lanes are equipped with Automatic vehicle classification systems . All the three plazas are interconnected through a WAN.

The First Kapsch Toll System In India Finalized: Toll System For One Of The Most Frequented Highways Is Up And Running.

Since End of January 2008 runs the operation of the first road toll project of Kapsch TrafficCom AG in India with no problems. Within a joint venture structure – the Kapsch Metro Joint Venture – Kapsch TrafficCom alongside the Indian Metro Road Systems Ltd. fitted one section of the National Highway No. 8 with a modern manual/electronic toll system. This highway covers the route from Delhi to Gurgaon and is one of the most frequented roads in the region. The central toll plaza with altogether 32 toll lanes is one of the largest toll stations in all of Asia.

Since January 2008, the road from Delhi to Gurgaon features a modern manual/electronic toll system based on microwave technology (CEN 278). Completion of this toll system marks the successful finalization of the first road toll project of Kapsch TrafficCom in India. The principal, licensee DS Constructions Ltd., decided to award the contract to the Kapsch Metro Joint Venture in September 2006.

“For us, the selection of KapschMetro JV as a technology partner was an important step in the management of the traffic volumes on the project. The technology selected is stable, secure and has processed over 3 million transactions to date with no problems. The installation of the equipment was done in difficult circumstances with live traffic of over 130,000 per day travelling through the lanes during the installation period. The equipment implementation of the Delhi-Gurgaon toll project is a success story, Kapsch Metro JV delivered the project on schedule and to our complete satisfaction“, explains Allan Le Roux, Chief Operations Officer- Tolling of DS Constructions Ltd.

“Kapsch has already performed successful projects in India in the past, contracting GSM-R work for Indian Railroads, the Indian national railway system. With this commission, we were able to enter the Indian toll system market within an extremely short time, owing our success largely to our staff’s wealth of know-how and to the many years of experience we have in the Asian area. For me, the route that has now been completed is just the beginning of numerous further business ventures in Asia“, says Erwin Toplak, Board Member of Kapsch TrafficCom AG.

The Toll Road project is constructed on a 20 year BOT basis and has a length of 27 km long and rates among the most heavily trafficked projects in the region and provides important connectivity to the Indira Gandhi International Airport of New Delhi and the “New Millennium City” Gurgaon which boasts as having one of the worlds biggest shopping malls! The three toll plazas on the project have a total of 56 toll lanes. The main toll plaza located on the Delhi Haryana Border has 32 toll lanes. Motorists are able to use cash or use a Smart Card in at all lanes except the 4 dedicated non stop lanes with exclusive payment via microwave TAGs.

Kapsch TrafficCom AG is a global provider of innovative road traffic telematic systems, products, and services. Kapsch TrafficCom develops and supplies electronic toll collection systems, in particular multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) systems, and is also able to act as the technical and commercial manager for operating these systems. Further, Kapsch TrafficCom offers traffic management solutions (with the focus on road safety and traffic control), electronic access control systems, and parking space management. Kapsch TrafficCom has established itself among the global market leaders for ETC systems with more than 140 installed toll systems in 30 countries in Europe, Australia, Latin America, the Asian/Pacific Area, and South Africa, which altogether feature more than eleven million transponders and about 11’000 fitted lanes. Kapsch TrafficCom is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries and representative offices in 18 countries.

Vienna on 27th March, 2008

For further information, please contact:
Brigitte Herdlicka
Public Relations & Sponsoring
Kapsch Group
Phone: +43 (0) 50 811 2705
1120 Vienna, Wagenseilgasse 1
E-Mail: brigitte.herdlicka@kapsch.net
www.kapschtraffic.com
www.kapsch.net

From Delhi to Gurgaon in 15-20 mins

NEW DELHI/GURGAON: If you spend hours fretting and fuming while trying to get from Gurgaon to Delhi and vice versa, here’s some good news. On December 31, all flyovers on the 27-km Gurgaon-Delhi expressway will be opened. That includes the one curving across the road to IGI airport, which means going to catch a flight would also become less of a pain.

National Highways Authority of India claimed this deadline is final — there will be no extension. Toll on this expressway — which will reduce Delhi-Gurgaon travel time to 15-20 minutes from the current hour-long agony — will not be charged right away. In fact, talks are still on to fix the toll amount as well as its modalities.

While the final toll amount will be announced shortly, indications are that it will be Rs 15-16 for the entire stretch, but 50% less for vehicles regularly commuting between Gurgaon and Delhi and the other way round. In other words, Gurgaon residents working in Delhi and Delhi residents working in Gurgaon would have to shell out Rs 7.50 or Rs 8 — possibly not such a high amount considering the convenience.

Two-wheelers, three-wheelers and all slow-moving traffic will not be allowed on the expressway. These will have to take the service lane adjacent to the expressway.

NHAI’s member, technical, Nirmaljeet Singh said: “As of now all the flyovers except the one at Palam are operational. This too will be open before 2008.” Said another official, “We have put the expansion joints and now curing is in progress. Just a few things remain to be done and they will be done in the year’s last week when traffic will be less on certain days because of government holidays.”

Singh added that the loop connecting to the domestic airport would be operational by the year-end. This means the current jam in the approach to the airport would ease up somewhat. It will fully clear up once the new domestic terminal being constructed between 1A and 1B is completed.

While toll tax on vehicles will be levied only after the independent consultant gives a satisfactory report of the working of the toll plazas, the one near Delhi is a state-of-the-art 32-lane plaza, designed for easy traffic flow.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Express highway project delayed due to departmental blockades

Lucknow, December 16 Even though the state government has started a number of road projects in the last six months, Amar Shaheed Path Express Highway, proposed and inaugurated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpaee, still has a long way to go. Even after six years since its construction was started, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) could only finish 75 per cent of the work. The project was inaugurated on September 22, 2001 with a stipulated deadline of 36 months. However, due to various constraints, the road project work progressed at a snail’s pace.

A senior NHAI official said they had to face various hurdles like land acquisition and clearances from various government organisations, etc.

“It took us long to get clearances for constructing railway overbridges from the railway authorities. At some places, the land acquisition delayed the work. The authorities were not supportive,” he said.

Talking to The Indian Express, Deputy General Manager (technical), NHAI, J S Parmar said all bottlenecks have been removed and remaining work is expected to be over by June 2008.

“There were certain problems but they have been resolved. Of the total three overbridges falling in way of the highway, one is completed and work on other two will start soon. Left out road stretches would also be completed,” he said.

He added land acquisition or getting clearances were not the only reasons for the delay. “The project was revised a few times after work started. Like, two underpasses and 1.5-km-long viaduct near Gomti Nagar were added subsequently,” Parmar said.

Besides, the NHAI officials blame the contractor of the project, Atlanta Ltd, for slow progress of work. “We held meetings with them and asked them to carry out project in time. We also warned them if they didn’t work efficiently, their license will be cancelled. The work is going smoothly at the moment,” said another NHAI official. 

The 22-km-long highway connects NH-25 (Lucknow-Kanpur) and NH-28 (Lucknow-Faizabad) via NH-56 (Lucknow-Sultanpur) passing through the city. “The highway will act as an outer ring road. It may not directly benefit local commuters, but traffic congestion will reduce on city roads. The heavy vehicles or the commuters going to Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Faizabad and Kanpur could travel on it without entering the city. Only a few important crossings have been left on the highway so that the vehicles do not get slowed down, causing jams,” said Parmar.

20 cos bid for longest expressway in India

The planned expressway will dwarf the 95km-long, six-laned, access controlled expressway connecting India’s financial capital Mumbai with Pune

Mumbai: Twenty firms have submitted initial bids for building India’s longest and biggest expressway project yet—a Rs40,000 crore, eight-laned, access controlled expressway linking Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP) with Greater Noida—located on the border of the Capital, New Delhi.

The 1047 km-long road project dubbed Ganga Expressway will, when operational, cut travel time between the backward eastern part of Uttar Pradesh and the more prosperous western part of the state, by 16 hours from the current 24 hours.

For a traveller, it would take just about eight hours to zip from the holy city of Varanasi to New Delhi when the project is completed.

The planned expressway will dwarf the 95km-long, six-laned, access controlled expressway connecting India’s financial capital Mumbai with Pune and the under construction and controversy-ridden 111km-long expressway linking Bangalore with the garden city of Mysore.

The firms that have applied for pre-qualification include Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Reliance Energy Ltd, DLF Ltd, IL&FS Ltd, Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd with Australia’s biggest investment bank Macquarie, GMR Group, the Omaxe Ltd-GVK Group-Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd consortium, the Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd-Apollo Group-D S Constructions Ltd consortium, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, Canadian firm SNC Lavalin with Progressive Constructions Ltd, Unitech Ltd, Punj Lloyd Ltd, Oman’s Gulfar Engineering & Contracting Llc., Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd, Australia’s Leighton Group with Oriental Construction Co. Ltd, and PLUS Expressways Berhad, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s UEM Group, according to an official with the UP government overseeing the bidding process who did not wish to be named.

UP has taken inspiration for building the Ganga Expressway from legendary Afghan leader Sher Shah Suri, who built the Grand Trunk Road connecting Delhi with Kabul in the 16th century after temporarily displacing Humayun from the Mughal throne.

Suri’s road ran alongside the right bank of the Ganga; the new expressway will be built on the left bank of the river.

The eight-laned expressway will be constructed on an embankment to be built by the state’s irrigation department for controlling floods on the left bank of the Ganga.

The proposed expressway will start at Ballia-Gazipur and pass through Varanasi, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Allahabad, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Hardoi, Farrukhabad, Fatehgarh, Shahjahanpur, Badaun, Bulandshahr, Gautam Buddhanagar and terminate at Greater Noida.

The expressway project will make available around 5,000 acres of land for real estate development including residential and industrial units. This will make the project economically viable for the developers.

The work on the expressway project will begin next year.

Source:  livemint.com

Gayatri Projects SPVs achieve financial closure

Gayatri Projects Ltd has announced that the Company has achieved the financial closure for the Company’s following Hyderabad Outer Ring Road Projects (SPV’s) at an interest rate of 11% p.a., ahead of the stipulated time given by the Employer namely Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA).

Financial Closure of Hyderabad Expressways Pvt Ltd (HEPL) – Total cost of the Project Rs 430.96 crores: M/s. Hyderabad Expressways Pvt Ltd promoted in Consortium, by the Company as lead technical member, with 50% share holding, bid and won road project (AP-IV) for design, construction, development, finance, operate and maintain eight lane access controlled expressway under Phase II programme of outer ring road (ORR) of Hyderabad Urban Development Authority. The concession Agreement was signed on August 17, 2007. The total debt syndicated for this Project is Rs 290.90 crores.

IL&FS (IL&FS Financial Services Ltd) has syndicated entire debt and United Bank of India is the Leader of the Consortium of Lenders for the SPV.

Details of the package awarded are as follows: AP IV – from Bongulur to Tukkuguda from km. 108 to km. 121 on BOT – Annuity basis. Estimated Project Cost incl. IDC is around Rs 430.96 cr. and the project has a positive Grant of Rs 71.86 crores. HUDA will pay a semi-annual annuity of Rs 30.49 crore to HEPL during the Annuity period. The concession period door-to-door is 15 years, with. a construction period of 2 years 6 months and Annuity period of 12 years 6 Months.

Financial Closure of Cyberabad Expressways Pvt Ltd (CEPL) – Total cost of the Project Rs 501.75 crores: M/s. Cyberabad Expressways Pvt Ltd promoted in Consortium by the Company as lead technical member with 50% share holding, bid and won road project (APII) for design, construction, development, finance, operate and maintain eight lane access controlled expressway under Phase II programme of outer ring road (ORR) of Hyderabad Urban Development Authority.

IL&FS (IL&FS Financial Services Ltd) has syndicated entire debt and United Bank of India is the Leader of the Consortium of Lenders for the SPV.

Details of the package awarded are as follows: AP II – from Kollur to Patancheru from km. 12 to km. 23.70 on BOT – Annuity basis. Estimated Project Cost incl. IDC is Rs 501.75 crores and the project has a positive Grant of Rs 81 crores. Annuity – Rs 79 cr. p.a. HUDA will pay a semi-annual annuity of Rs 39.50 crore to CEPL during the Annuity period. The concession period door-to-door is 15 years, with a construction period of 2 years 6 months and Annuity period of 12 years 6 Months. The concession Agreement was signed on August 17, 2007. The total debt syndicated for this Project is Rs 376.31 crores

The Company is a pioneer in construction of National Highways, Dams, Canals, Aquaducts, Flyovers, Coal handling plants, Bridges, Railway Projects, Airport Runways, BOT Toll and Annuity Road Projects as develop and Industrial Constructions.

Source:  equitybulls.com

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NHAI's First ETC(Electronic Toll Collection) PLAZA

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