Punjab has received an unsolicited proposal from Reliance Energy Ltd for developing a massive expressway connecting Pathankot in Gurudaspur district to Ajmer in Rajasthan.
Speaking to Projectmonitor, a senior official of nodal agency Punjab Infrastructure Development Board said that the expressway would pass through Haryana to reach Rajasthan. In phase-I of the project, the expressway will be developed up to the Punjab-Haryana border. The length and the cost will be worked out once the alignment study is finalised.
Leading real estate developer Omaxe Ltd has also proposed to construct an eight-lane ring road around Amritsar city.
For both the projects, PIDB has proposed to use the Swiss Challenge route wherein competitive bids will be solicited from other prospective bidders and the original proponents will be given a chance to match them.
Meanwhile, PIDB recently cleared diverse investment proposals worth Rs 20,000 crore that will be developed using the public-private partnership route. Amongst the proposals cleared in the roadway sector is the 99-km Mohali-Phagwara expressway expected to cost Rs 2,161 crore. The project will require 2,470 acres of land estimated to cost Rs 500 crore.
Another expressway planned will connect Mohali to Baddi, the developing industrial belt in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. The 66-km stretch will cost Rs 2,660 crore, with 3 km lying in the neighbouring state.
The Swiss Challenge method is used to award unsolicited (or suo moto) proposals that are suggested by the private sector to the government. The occurrence of such proposals, though not very common in India, is widely seen in some countries like Chile, South Korea and Philippines to name a few. Some countries even have a separate ministry to deal with such proposals. Under the Swiss Challenge, the government gives challengers an opportunity to make better offers that the original proponent, and then gives the original proponent a chance to match them.
In early 2006, the GMR Group had submitted a suo moto proposal and a financial bid for a 11.6-km elevated corridor to provide connectivity to the new Hyderabad international airport. The Andhra Pradesh had proposed to use the Swiss Challenge route to award this project, but later went in for the conventional bidding process.