The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) on Wednesday awarded its second Build Operate Transfer (BoT) Toll project in recent times, signing an agreement for development of 88 km six lane access control Agra-Gwalior Expressway.
The project has been awarded to G R Infraprojects Ltd and as per the amended Model Concession Agreement (MCA) the NHAI will provide Rs 820 crore to the concessionaire which will be linked to the progress of the project. The total cost of the project is Rs 4,613 crore including the cost of land acquisition.
The move is significant given the dearth of pure-play private risk capital in highway projects for long years, which resulted in increased reliance on Budget funds to keep the pace of highway construction.
Implementation of EPC projects had inflated the NHAI’s debt to Rs 3.5 lakh crore by the end of 2021-22, bit it has since been on a declining trajectory, and is currently around Rs 2.76 lakh crore.
The concession period of the Agra-Gwalior Expressway contract contract is 20 years, including a construction period of 30 months.
Overlay/strengthening, road safety and improvement measures for the existing National Highway on NH-44 have also been included in the Agra-Gwalior project agreement which was signed in the presence of NHAI Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav and senior officials of NHAI and the Concessionaire.
The Agra – Gwalior Greenfield Expressway will start from Deori Village in Agra and terminate at Susera Village in Gwalior, a statement by NHAI said.
Recently, NHAI signed a concession agreement to develop 121 km long Guwahati Ring Road on BoT (Toll) Mode. Both these projects are on the list of 15 greenfield projects of the total length of 937 km that the NHAI has decided to develop through BoT.
The government has been working to revive BoT mode as it wants to reduce the dependence on the general budget for highway development. Many steps have been taken, including changes in MCA to enable construction support to make BoT more attractive for private players. In BoT the developer bears the entire cost of building the highway and in return gets the right to collect toll from the users for 20 years.
The Agra-Gwalior expressway will pass through the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. It will not only provide high-speed connectivity between Agra and Gwalior but also will help to decongest various cities and industrial areas on the existing Agra-Gwalior Section of NH-44. “The expressway will cut travel time, reduce carbon footprint and enhance logistics efficiency of commercial and freight movement between Agra, Dholpur, Morena and Gwalior,” the statement said.
The greenfield expressway will feature eight major bridges, 23 minor bridges, six flyovers, one Rail-Over-Bridge and 192 culverts. The project will also pass through the National Chambal wildlife century. As part of wildlife mitigation measures, a cable-stayed bridge on river Chambal has been planned for the conservation of ‘Gadiyal’ in the river waters. Apart from this, other Wildlife mitigation measures such as sound barriers and light cutters will also be provided on the bridge, the statement added.