Vadodara-Bharuch NH-8 stretch not equipped to handle fire mishaps

April 19, 2010

VADODARA: The Vadodara-Bharuch stretch of National Highway-8 is not equipped to handle any major fire incident.

An RTI application has revealed that as per an agreement signed between National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and private operator L&T Vadodara Bharuch Tollway Limited (VBTL),which had bagged the six-laning project of 83.3 km stretch of NH-8 on build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis, L&T VBTL is supposed to provide fire brigade service on the highway. But, the ground reality is that there is no fire brigade service on the stretch, which ironically witnesses highest traffic movement, including vehicles that transport chemicals.

The RTI response that was provided to applicant Yashwant Jangid by NHAI states that as operations part of operation and maintenance (O&M) manual, the operator will have to take care of ambulance, fire brigade and tow away trucks and cranes as rescue and medical aid services. The documents under schedule-L carry stamps of both NHAI and L&T VBTL.

But, an L&T VBTL official looking after accident management of the stretch told TOI that he wasn’t aware about such a clause in the concession agreement. “If there is a fire incident on the stretch, we have handy fire extinguishers. If still the fire does not get extinguished, then we call local police which in turn contacts local fire brigade to do the needful,” the official said.

“L&T VBTL officials interpret that the clause in the agreement is to provide only fire brigade services, which does not mean that the highways should have fire vehicles stationed,” a NHAI official claimed. But, the fact remains that L&T VBTL has never approached Vadodara Fire Brigade and Emergency Services (VFBES), managed by Vadodara Municipal Corporation, to get their service.

“We are supposed to function and provide our services only in municipal jurisdiction of Vadodara. When we cross corporation limits, our services are charged. But, we have series of bills pending which neither the contractor of the highway nor the victims of accidents have paid,” chief fire officer of VFBES H J Taparia told TOI, adding that L&T VBTL has never approached them to sign an agreement for such services.

Incidentally, even on Wednesday morning, VFBES officials had to rush to Dumad Chowkdi from the starting point of Vadodara-Bharuch highway when a truck rammed a tree leaving the driver dead on the spot, while officials extricated a cleaner’s body that was trapped by using hydraulic equipment.

“We handle nearly 35 to 40 calls a year on this part of the highway as nobody is ready to go on that road,” Taparia added.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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IVRCL Infra bullish on BOT road projects

January 27, 2010

IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects Ltd said it has received a Rs 1,550 crore BOT (Built Operate Transfer) road project in Madhya Pradesh from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The concession will be for 25 years and the project will be completed in 30 months.

“The 155-km long road project will be executed by a special purpose vehicle owned by IVR Prime. The road construction will be taken up by IVRCL Infra,” said Mr E. Sudhir Reddy, the chairman of IVRCL Group.

“With this, IVR Prime has BOT projects — confirmed and lowest bidder — worth Rs 10,000 crore,” he said adding that the company expects to win six BOT projects by this year end.

The project, which is a part of National Highway 59, involves design, engineering, construction, development, finance, operation and maintenance of the road that runs between Indore and Ahmedabad.

Mr Reddy said that the debt-equity of 5:1 would be used to fund the project. “The equity component will be raised through internal accruals and raising debt will not be difficult for us,” Mr Reddy said.

Following the road transport and highways minister, Mr Kamal Nath’s target to build 20 km road every day by April 2010, the NHAI has put the process of awarding contracts on the fast track. “We are currently doing 9 km a day and would be in a position to scale up to 20 km a day by April-May 2010,” Mr Nath had said recently.

Recently, the government had approved road projects worth Rs 6,152 crore in five states for upgrading nearly 562 km of four-lane highways into six lanes.

Mr Nath had also coined the idea of issuing infrastructure bonds to raise money from non-resident Indians on the lines of the Resurgent India Bonds issued in 1998 and the India Millennium Bonds issued in 2000.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Investment and Finance

Roadblock to four-laning as ryots reject Govt of

December 3, 2009

VIJAYAWADA: The much-awaited widening of Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway No.9 project is likely to be delayed for another three to four months as farmers on either side of the highway are not agreeing to part with their land.

The GMR Infrastructure Ltd has bagged the 181-km long road project worth of Rs 1,200 crore on a BOT basis through international competitive bidding and its works are scheduled to begin in January, 2010 after completion of the land acquisition process by Dec, 2009.

However, with the Government intending to acquire land at half its market value, many farmers are not interested in handing over their valuable land for the expansion work.

The 181-km four-laning work on Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway would be taken up from 40th km near Malkapuram in Nalgonda district to 221-km mark at Nandigama in Krishna district. For this, a total of 1,053 hectares land would be required in 53 villages in Nalgonda district and 13 in Krishna district.

According to a senior officer in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Government which is scheduled to complete the land acquisition process by the first week of December, has so far acquired not even 50 percent of land from the total of 1,053 hectares.When revenue authorities visited the land to be acquired at Nakirekal and Chityala in Nalgonda district and Jaggayyapet in Krishna district some days ago, they experienced a stiff resistance from landowners.

According to local people, the market rate of land in the villages surrounding Nandigama is Rs 15 lakh per acre and Rs 20 lakh per acre in Nandigama town. However, the Government is willing to acquire the land by paying amounts not exceeding Rs 6 lakh per acre.

Source: expressbuzz.com

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By 2022, govt to lay 18,637km of expressways

December 3, 2009

NEW DELHI: The government has drawn up an ambitious target to lay 18,637km network of brand new expressways by 2022. These high-speed, access-controlled roads will be of the four-lane and six-lane variety with 3,530 km to come up in the next three years.

The highways ministry is ready with a Master Plan for the National Expressway Network. The new target of expressway length was projected after receiving observations from 11 states including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, the final draft report prepared by the highways ministry had proposed to develop 17,661 km of expressway network.

The expressways network will not be an upgraded national highway network but will be developed entirely as greenfield projects. These will preferably be built with three-metre high embankments and will have service roads along the stretches where there is a need. Officials said there was an urgent need to develop expressways network as road transport would remain the mainstay for sustaining the economic momentum of the country.

“The existing arterial network cannot meet the latent and the emerging demands for connectivity and accessibility while ensuring the desired level of safety,” said a senior ministry official.

As per estimates, the construction cost per km would be Rs 14 crore in case of 4-lane and Rs 20 crore in case of 6-lane expressways excluding land acquisition and other expenses. A recent presentation made before the top brass of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the ministry also mentioned that while majority of identified stretches would be built on build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode, stretches which were unviable could be developed on annuity basis.

The Master Plan document has also phased the expressway development programme for 2012, 2017 and 2022 and this has been done on the basis of financial viability, relative traffic intensity along various corridor segments, network comprehensiveness, connectivity warrants and relative economic potential of each proposed project.

The ministry is already in the process of preparing a draft for creation of a National Expressways Authority of India (NEAI) on the lines of NHAI and the highway regulator has also got an exclusive wing for the expressway as a stop-gap arrangement.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Bumps in road funding to be eased

December 3, 2009

NEW DELHI: The government is exploring ways to improve flow of funds to developers executing road projects by making funding of such projects
attractive for financial institutions, including insurance companies.

The panel on highway development, headed by the Planning Commission member BK Chaturvedi, is now working on the second part of its report on expediting work on the ambitious National Highways Development Project (NHDP).

“We have sorted out funding issues of the NHAI through cess and government guarantees, at least for one year. Now we have to look at the issue of financing of people who are building the roads,” Mr Chaturvedi said in an exclusive chat with ET.

The government has already accepted Chaturvedi panel’s recommendations on relaxing the norms for public-private projects (PPPs) in the road sector, continued funding of National Highways Authority of India through road cess collection and government guarantee for its borrowings.

The government has set a target of constructing 7,000 km of road annually, which translates into building 20 km of roads a day. It is planning to hand out contracts for nearly 12,000 km of highways to private developers in the next one year.

“We are examining what kind of safeguards are required to make insurance companies lend to road projects,” he said, adding that they would want the government to share risk and also give guarantees that the debts would be repaid.
The panel is still in the process of collecting information from the industry and other parties concerned and hopes to finish its report by January-end.

The government has decided to guarantee NHAI’s borrowing for the current year. The financing of NHAI in the years to come is yet to be decided. “ The empowered group of ministers set up on road financing will look at how the funding requirements of NHAI will be handled in the following years,” Mr Chaturvedi said.

Although NHAI does involve the private sector to fund projects through the build operate and transfer (BOT) mode of finance, it has its own financing needs as well.

NHAI has to invest in all projects carried on EPC or cash contract basis, which is the standard financing format in the North East and J&K where private players are not too keen to take risks because they are commercial unviable in these areas.

NHAI has to make some investments even in projects that are handed out to private road developers through the build operate transfer (BOT) basis to the extent of making them commercially viable, through what is called viability gap funding.

It has to pay an annual annuity to developers under the BOT annuity option and provide capital grant to increase viability of projects under the BOT toll option where private developers are allowed to collect toll for recovering costs and earning profits.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

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No state consent, NHAI goes ahead with four-laning of highway section

December 3, 2009

Without taking the state government on board, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already decided to go ahead with the four-laning of the 80-km Muzaffarnagar-Hardwar section of the Delhi-Dehradun corridor.

The state government has not yet given its consent to the State Support Agreement for a 21-km stretch, which falls within the state. The rest falls in Uttarakhand.

The bids for the project were invited in September and had to be opened on October 9. But the Highway Authority had later thought of abandoning the project as the state government had refused to sign the State Support Agreement. They have now decided to go ahead with the project.

“The 9 bids received for this project were opened on Wednesday. A contractor for the project will be finalised within a week,” said M K Jain, Project Director.

“The state government has not sent any letter of consent on the State Support Agreement. But the Highway Authority is going ahead with the project,” added Jain.

According to him, the four-laning of the highway will start from June next year. About 70-hectare would be required for 21-km stretch in the state.

“Land has been earmarked. A proposal has been sent to the authorities for approval on notification of land acquisition. The notification will be issued within a week,” said Jain.

The Muzaffaragar-Hardwar section will be four-laned on built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis under the National Highways Development Project (phase-III). The project will cost Rs 900 crore. The Detailed Project Report has also been prepared.

The state government had refused to sign the State Support Agreement as it wants to develop an expressway along the Upper Ganga Canal from Noida to Hardwar which will also open a passage for Uttarakhand from UP and Delhi. Jain said if the State Support Agreement was signed, the state government had to assure that no alternative expressway — Upper Ganga Canal Expressway — would be developed parallel to Highway Authority’s highway, leading to a competition.

“Since the agreement has not been signed, the state government is free to develop its own expressway,” said Jain.

The eight-lane Upper Ganga Canal expressway, popularly known as Hindon Expressway, will stretch from Noida to Hardwar through Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee. Mumbai-based firm called Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is conducting the feasibility study of the project and are likely to submit the report by next month.

Source: expressindia.com

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Reliance Infra bags Rs 590crore Jaipur project

October 26, 2009

New Delhi: Reliance Infrastructure, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company, has won the Rs 590 crore Jaipur-Reengus highway project in Rajasthan from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The project is expected to be completed by 2011.

The company is currently implementing road projects worth Rs 4,500 crore and aims to increase its road portfolio more than four-fold to over Rs 20,000 crore by 2012.

Reliance Infra bagged the Rajasthan project on the basis of the lowest quote for grant at Rs 103 crore. The upgrade work of the 53 kilometre stretch will be implemented on a build operate and transfer (BOT) basis for a concession period of 18 years, including the construction period. After completion of the project, the company will earn toll through the remaining period before handing over the project to NHAI.

“Jaipur-Reengus contract is the seventh road project won by Reliance Infrastructure. With this, the company would be committing more than Rs 4,500 crore for the road sector. We are planning to increase the total road project portfolio over Rs 20,000 crore by 2012-13,” Lalit Jalan, CEO, Reliance Infrastructure, said in a statement.

The deal is likely to be signed in a month and the construction will begin soon thereafter. The group has a market capitalisation of around Rs 1,50,000 crore, and net worth of over Rs 64,000 crore. Also, the operating cash with the group is to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore.

The company’s two Tamil Nadu projects became operational last week. The projects, Namakkal-Karur and Dindigul-Samynalore, are worth Rs 763 crore and span 96 kilometres.All the remaining road projects are expected to be operational by March 2011.

Also, Reliance Infra is bullish on the infrastructure growth in the country.”Infrastructure will be a major source of revenue for us and we will bid for most of the projects being planned in the country,” Jalan said.

It is undergoing the tendering process in projects worth around Rs 50,000 crore. The company has achieved financial closure for the Rs 2,356 crore first phase of Mumbai Metro project and has also bagged the Rs 11,000 crore second phase of the project to develop a 32 kilometre stretch for a concession period of 35 years.

Source: dnaindia.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Investment and Finance

UPA-2 road plans hit a bump

October 26, 2009

NEW DELHI: This could be an indicator of how the ambitious highway development programme has been a non-starter in UPA-2. National Highways

Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded only 17 projects for 1,574 km since January against the plan of awarding 135 projects (14,384 km) in the current financial.

A presentation made by the highway regulator at a CII conference on consulting services on Tuesday pointed to the huge gap between the projection and actual pace of award of projects in the past 10 months. As per the presentation, only 17 projects costing Rs 17,757 crore were awarded including one project on BOT (annuity). It further showed that nine more projects on BOT (toll) and two on annuity modes were under the process of award. However, information was not available on how many highway projects were awarded since the change of guard in the ministry.

NHAI officials blamed the slow pace on certain “controversial clauses” and provisions in the request for quotation (RFQ) and request for proposal (RFP) and the model concession agreement. “We had prepared a plan to award 60 projects last year but the economic downturn hit us hard and only 12-13 projects could be awarded. Many projects could not achieve financial closure even after awarding. This time it’s equally worse due to certain contractual provisions and clauses of the bid documents including the conflict of interest clause,” said a senior official.

Road, transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has already identified the interpretation of ‘conflict of interest’ as the biggest roadblock in the fast tracking of highway projects.

Transport secretary Brahm Dutt admitted on Tuesday that the award of projects was taking time while the ministry had set a target of achieving construction of 20 km highway per day.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Overhaul policy to remove roadblocks: Nath

May 30, 2009

Taking over as the new surface transport minister today, Kamal Nath said regulations around India’s road network will be overhauled. The minister also promised to change the physical landscape of the country’s transport infrastructure in due time. “I have been given a challenging task,” Nath said, adding that, “We need to look at the old regulatory framework in an entirely new way and that will call for a complete change of mindset.”

“Policies cannot be measured…there can be a number of policies. But roads and highways can be physically measured. This is a major infrastructure area. Results will be seen,” said the minister who had the commerce and industry portfolio in the previous government.

Nath said he would bring in structural changes in the system and procedures of awarding contracts to private players. The public private partnership (PPP) models worked out by the ministry, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Planning Commission, have failed to attract interest among the bidders. Most of the projects, together worth Rs 70,000 crore, could not be awarded.

“If you have a model of PPP which nobody responds to, you have a model which is not workable. If you want progress, you would have workable models. This is the most important thing,” the minister said.

Nath, who was minister for commerce and industry in the previous government, said he will work towards meeting the challenge of providing stimulus to the economy through developing roads and highways.

“With the current global recession and the (slowdown) in the country, it is important that this (development of roads and highways) provides economic stimulus, this provides jobs and this is going to the biggest challenge,” he said. His ministry will also look at the impediments in implementing plans for infrastructure development in the country, Nath said.

Source: indianexpress.com

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NH-6 extention plan till Hazira port to be put on fast track

May 21, 2009

With the Congress-led UPA government taking over at the Centre, widening and extending of the 132-km stretch of road project between

Gujarat-Maharashtra border and Hazira port on 2,000-km long National Highway-6 (NH-6) is likely to be put on the fast track by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The project was caught in a logjam for quite some time as a few industries were unwilling to part with the required tract of land.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) of UPA government had approved the project costing Rs 1,661 crore on February 5 this year. With the bidding process for the project already underway, the new government is likely to clear roadblocks soon, said sources in NHAI.

The process began in May 2008 with NHAI inviting tenders for short listing suitable agencies to implement the project. But, nothing concrete could be achieved, largely due to some public sector undertakings (PSUs) lobbying hard for an alternative route, as widening of existing road requires strip of land under their jurisdiction.

The plan to extend NH-6 was stuck after National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Krishak Bharati Co-operative Ltd (KRIBHCO) made several representations to NHAI in May last year stating that they were not in a position to spare additional strips of land near their facilities.

According to a letter in April last year by NHAI to all industries in Hazira, an additional land strip of 36 m to 42 m along the existing road was required on the stretch of 8.7 km from KRIBHCO to NTPC and on 5.7 km near Essar Group in Hazira area.

An alternative suggestion was made by KRIBHCO to avoid widening the existing road in Hazira and NHAI. “But a truncated stretch was not possible and hence not a substitute to the proposed highway up to Hazira port,” a senior official in NHAI told TOI.

NHAI, a central government agency, is keen on executing this project.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Uncategorized

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