NHAI invites bids for highway project

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has invited bids for the second bundle of national highways under the Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) model.

The bundle consists of eight stretches of national highways in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal. The total length of the project is 586.552 km, which will have as many as 12 toll plazas. The due date for the bids is November 5.

Concessionaires have to quote their Bid Concession Fee against NHAI's estimated Initial Estimated Concession Value (IECV) of Rs. 5362 crore. The TOT bundle-II also involves an initial construction cost of Rs 929 crore.

The total contract period of TOT is for 30 years, which may increase or decrease subject to the flow in traffic. The concessionaire would be required to maintain and operate the stretch during this period. In lieu of this, the concessionaire would get the rights to collect user fee for this period, in accordance with prescribed fee rates under NH Fee Rules.

It may be recalled that for TOT Bundle-I of 648 km, Australia-based Macquarie Group had emerged as the highest bidder, quoting $1.5 billion (Rs. 9681 crore) against the NHAI IECV of approximately 1 billion USD (Rs. 6258 crore).