The eagerly awaited widening of the Bengaluru-Mysuru road has received a setback with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) cancelling the tender already floated for development of National Highway 275. It is now awaiting a nod from the Centre for inviting fresh bids under a new model.
After the Union Surface Transport Ministry approved a project to widen the existing four-lane highway into a six-lane one, besides constructing a service road along the entire stretch and bypasses and flyovers at key towns, the NHAI on December 6, 2016, invited tenders for taking up work on widening the highway under Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer basis.
But, on January 2, 2017, three days before the last date for online bidson January 5, 2017, the NHAI, in a communication to all the bidders, cancelled the tender. An official of the National Highways Division of the Public Works Department told The Hindu that the NHAI has sent a proposal to the Centre to invite fresh bids under hybrid annuity model. The official described the model as a “very good one”, whose features will be notified only after receiving approval from the Centre.
The invitation for fresh bids is expected to delay the project by a couple of months even as a large number of people commuting between the two cities are looking forward to the widening of the highway, which chokes with traffic particularly during weekends.
Under the scrapped Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) tender, which had been floated in two packages, the cost of developing one stretch from Bengaluru to Nidaghatta in Maddur taluk was ₹2,196.07 crore and the cost of the stretch from Nidaghatta to Mysuru was ₹2,299.03 crore. The total length of the highway to be taken up for development is 117.03 km.
The cost of the project under the revised hybrid annuity model is yet to be worked out. The highway development work includes construction of a 10-lane highway, including the main carriageway of six lanes, which will be tolled, and a service road with two lanes on either side of the highway without toll. In addition, flyovers will be constructed at Bidadi and Srirangapatna, besides bypasses at Ramanagaram, Channapanta, and Mandya.
While the NHAI will be setting a deadline of two years and six months for the project to be completed from the starting date, officials admitted that the project’s commencement could easily be delayed by five to six months on account of the decision to invite fresh bids.
Floating a fresh tender envisages working out different sharing patterns and setting new parameters. “The entire process could take about five to six months,” an official said. The two-and-a-half-year deadline fixed for the completion of the projects starts only after the agency is identified to execute the project.
Land acquisition
Meanwhile, the final notification for acquisition of land for the highway widening project has been issued.
A total of 2,220 acres of land had been identified for acquisition. The State government, in its budget in March 2016, had earmarked ₹2,400 towards land acquisition. “The payment of compensation to the land losers is under way,” an official said, adding that they do not foresee any hurdles in the land acquisition process.
