Top 12 infra companies including larsen & Toubro, Reliance Infrastructure and Afcons are in the race for the state government’s flagship project of Poorvanchal Expressway linking lucknow with Ghazipur in east UP.
On Friday, technical bids were opened where 12 companies participated for 8 packages of the total 340 km expressway starting from Chandsari village of Malihabad (lucknow) to Ghazipur.
The results of the bids will be announced next month after opening of the financial bid. Industrial Development Commissioner (IDC) Anup Chandra Pandey confirmed the opening of the technical bid on Saturday and said that the financial bid would be opened in June.
In the technical bidding stage, 12 companies — Reliance, PNC Infratech, NCC limited (Formerly Nagarjuna Construction Company), l&T, BSCPl Infrastructure (formerly B Seenaiah & Company (Projects)), Sadbhav Engineering, Oriental Structural Engineers, Ashoka Buildcon, KNR Constructions, Apco Infratech, Gayatri Projects, Afcons Infrastructure have been found eligible for financial bids.
Official sources said that the financial bid of these companies would be opened next month and thereafter the evaluation committee would vet these bids and select the company quoting the minimum price.
The government has divided the project into 8 packages, for which separate developers would be selected.
In the first package for 40.47 kms there are five bidders, the second package of 39.70 kms has six bidders, third of 41.70 kms has five bidders, fourth of 43.70 kms has five bidders, the fifth package of 54 kms has four bidders, the sixth of 28.70 kms has five bidders, seventh of 46.08 kms has six bidders and the eighth package of 47.97 kms has six bidders.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 11,800 crores excluding the land cost of Rs 6,500 crore. The government has acquired more than 90 per cent of land by paying compensation of Rs 5, 800 crores.
The Yogi government is likely to lay foundation stone of the expressway in the next three to four months and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to grace the occasion.
The project was in fact announced by the previous Akhilesh Yadav government but it was delayed due to slow pace of land acquisition. About 4,332 hectares are required for the project, comprising both private and government land. As per norms, an expressway project could be launched only after 90 per cent of the land was acquired, while the aggregate land acquired for Purvanchal Expressway stands at about 85 per cent.
The proposed 340 km expressway would traverse nine districts — lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur.
It would also connect important towns in its periphery including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Allahabad and Gorakhpur through link roads.
The expressway would also have a 3 km long runway at Kudebhar (Sultanpur) for landing and take-off by fighter jets during emergencies.
Once completed, it would be the country’s largest access controlled expressway and slash travel time between Ghazipur and lucknow to less than five hrs. It would could be also used to lay oil/gas pipeline in future if required.