Even as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is grappling with issues like withdrawals of bidders from projects, rendering certain projects announced in September this year without any single bidder, two stretches worth Rs 1,100 crore in older projects such as North South East West (NSEW) Corridor, too have still found no takers.

The 65-km Walayar-Vadakkancherry stretch worth Rs 600 crore and 29-km Vadakkancherry-Thrissur project worth Rs 515 crore in the state of Kerala have been rendered bidderless. Confirming the development, a top NHAI official said, ?The projects did not find any takers for the projects owing to the prevailing economic slowdown. We have already seen a large number of withdrawals from various stretches in phase III.?

?NHAI now is calling the companies on an adhoc basis to bid for these projects,? said a top official of a highways construction firm on conditions of anonymity. The two projects form a part of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP), phase II, which envisaged North-South and East-West (NSEW) connectivity corridor.

NHDP phase II was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in December 2003 at an estimated cost of Rs 34,339 crore at 2002 prices. It comprises mostly NS-EW Corridor providing connectivity of 6,161 km and other national highways of 486 km length, the total length being 6,647 km. The total length of Phase II is 6,647 km. The funding for the phase was done with assistance from multi-lateral funding agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, JBIC and borrowings by the NHAI with the government guarantee.

Incidentally, of the 6,647 km under the phase, around 13 projects worth Rs 16,000 crore approximately are yet to be completed. A large part of these investments at around Rs 7,000 crore are to be done in the state of Jammu and Kashmir . (See table).

The completion of the entire NSEW corridor is likely to see more delays as the projects will now be bidded out on the basis of the guidelines mentioned in the model concession agreement approved by the Prime Minister?s Committee on Infrastructure in December last year. ?The stretches that are currently underway in the NSEW corridor will be completed by December next year. However, since those project which are yet to be awarded, will now be awarded on a build operate and transfer basis, as per the new concession agreement, it might take another three to four years in their completion,? said the NHAI official.