Mah-GujThe Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given fresh approval for three national highway projects on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. These projects were earlier awarded to a private concessionaire but delays in procuring land had led to termination of the contract. The three projects involve four-laning of three stretches on NH-6 in Maharashtra. The projects are Amravati-Chikhli (km166 to km360),Chikhli-Fagne (km360 to km 510) and
Fagne-Gujarat/Maharashtra border (km510 to km650).
The three stretches aggregating 485 km will involve total investment of Rs.7,528 crore. The projects part of NHDP-Phase IV will be developed in DBFOT (Toll) mode with private sector participation. The main object of the project is to expedite the improvement of
infrastructure in Maharashtra and also in reducing the time and cost of travel for traffic, particularly heavy traffic, plying between Amravati-Chikhli-Fagne-Gujarat/Maharashtra border section of NH-6 in Maharashtra, a government release said. Earlier, the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) in March 2012 approved the four-laning of two stretches—Amravati-Jalgaon
and Jalgaon-Gujarat/Maharashtra border—on NH-6 on DBFOT
(Toll) mode. Subsequently, L&T Infrastructure that quoted a premium Rs.131 crore and Rs.145 crore was selected as the private concessionaire.
While the concessionaire fulfilled majority of its conditions precedent, NHAI could not procure 80 per cent of
land even after 380 days of signing of the concession agreement. Due to increase in cost, the concessionaire expressed inability to continue the projects. Accordingly, the projects were terminated on mutual consent with forfeiture of bids security.Subsequently, the two projects were converted into three packages as discussed above.


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