Officials hope to restart work on the much-delayed project in another two months, 13 years after it was first conceived. The first phase of 92-km expressway constitutes 43-km stretch between Ahmedabad and Nadiad. The second phase comprises 49-km Nadiad-Vadodara section.

At present, the NHAI is holding talks with ICICI for finalising funding details for the first phase. According to official sources, the Gujarat government and financial institutions besides NHAI are likely to pick up stake in the project.

This will be the second project for which NHAI would be opting for the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route. The first is Rs 100-crore Moradabad bypass in which NHAI will be raising Rs 65 crore from the market. Out of the remaining sum,Rs 30 crore would be put in by NHAI and Rs 5 crore by Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation which is the EPC contractor for the project.

The land acquisition process for the first phase of Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway has already begun. The working group of the Ninth Plan on the road sector had earlier asked the government to make budgetary provision for land acquisition.

Project preparation work for the second phase is likely to be completed by December. The expressway project was conceived in 1986 after it was included in a World Bank programme. It was expected to be over by February 1992. However, the project ran into problems with the World Bank withdrawing aid in 1993.

The project cost was Rs 137.19 crore in 1986. Now, the balance work alone would cost Rs 450 crore.

The bridge work on the expressway is expected to be completed shortly though in the original scheme it was to be completed by September 1990.In 1986, the entire project was divided into 10 road and four bridge contracts.

Roadprojects were awarded to a joint venture of Continental Construction Ltd and a British company, Beffour Vetty. But the British partner pulled out. Though the Indian company signed a supplementary agreement with the government in 1991, it demanded a price revision. The ministry of finance turned down the request and the company was expelled in December 1994.

Two bridge contracts were successfully completed by the public sector National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC). For the other two, NBCC suffered price overruns. It was expelled and the two were regrouped into four packages and awarded again.

The ministry of surface transport recently entrusted the job to take up the project afresh to NHAI.