EPENational Highways Authority of India has placed all orders relating to construction of the 135-km Eastern Peripheral Expressway. The mode of implementation, it may be mentioned, was recently changed to EPC after the PPP route did not find takers.

Speaking to Projectmonitor by phone, a senior official of NHAI who did not wish to be identified, said that five bidders have been finalized for six packages. Sharing basic details, the spokesperson said that the winners were Ashoka Buildcon, Sadbhav Engineering, Oriental Structural Engineers, Gayatri Projects and Jaypee Group. Work on the 135-km six-lane expressway has been divided into six packages for the expressway per se with one separate package for civil works relating to the toll plaza that is pending finalization, the NHAI official observed.

Ashoka Buildcon Ltd (ABL), in a statement, the Mumbai-based ABL said that it was awarded “selected bidder” for Package-IV (km 71 to km 93) for development of the six-lane EPE, now called NH No. NE-II, in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, on EPC mode. The contract value is Rs.789 crore with the period of implementation being 30 months. Earlier in August, Sadbhav Engineering announced that it was declared L1 with respect to two packages of NE-II, aggregating 45.50 km. The value of the contract is around Rs.1,557 crore.

In July this year, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the development of the six-lane Eastern Peripheral Expressway on EPC basis. The 135-km expressway will circumvent Delhi and connect Haryana with Uttar Pradesh. The total project cost is estimated to be Rs.7,558 crore including Rs.1,795 crore for land acquisition, R&R and other pre-construction activities. The proposed expressway will start from km36.083 on NH-1 and end at km64.330 on NH-2, covering Sonepat, Faridabad, and Palwal districts in Haryana; and Baghpat, Gautam Budh Nagar, and Ghaziabad districts in Uttar Pradesh. Construction will be carried out in seven packages, each of around 22 km.

The main objective of the expressway is to decongest Delhi and obviate extreme air pollution in the city. Currently, thousands of trucks not destined for Delhi, make the city a mere thoroughfare to reach Uttar Pradesh or Haryana.

Background: In February 2014, CCEA had approved the project to be implemented on PPP basis. However, not a single bidder out of the five that submitted their requests for qualifications, put in its price bid. NHAI received five RfQ bids from IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, Uniquest Infra Ventures, and IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd showed interest to develop the project. But when tenders were floated, none showed any response. NHAI retendered the bids five times with no change in result. Finally, the implementation mode was changed to EPC.


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