Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro, IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects and KMC Constructions have been identified as ?preferred bidders? for Rs 8,216-crore highway projects, which are to be awarded on negative grant from the private players soon.
?We have selected the preferred bidders for the seven projects that are in the process of being awarded. It will take another 10 days for the results to be known. However, we have identified some ?preferred bidders? in the form of Reliance Infrastructure, IVRCL and L&T,? a senior official in National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) told FE.
NHAI, which is authorised to award the highway development project, has identified L&T as the preferred bidder for Rs 1,250-crore Krishnagiri-Walahjapet project in Tamil Nadu, while IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects has been acknowledged for Rs 852-crore Chengaplli-Walayar section of national highway 47 in the same state.
For Rohtak-Bawal stretch of highway 71 in Haryana, which will be developed at a cost of Rs 650 crore, NHAI has zeroed in on KMC Constructions Ltd. The Indore-Gujarat/Madhya Pradesh border section of highway number 59 will be widened at Rs 1,175 crore and NHAI is likely to award the project to IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects.
A consortium of Reliance Infrastructure and JTEG will most probably win the Rs 1,724.55-crore Pune-Satara highway project in Maharashtra. For Kandla-Mundra Port project in Gujarat, Reliance Infrastructure is leading the peck of bidders. L&T is likely to be awarded the Rs 805.39-crore Samakhiali-Gandhidham project in Guajarat.
Negative grant projects are those where private players make an upfront payment to NHAI or the government to get the concession right on the awarded corridor. They are different from the normal highway projects, in which the government has to bridge the gap between the total cost and the estimated earnings to private developers.
The negative grant model is gaining popularity after the government late last year approved key changes in the model concession agreement, recommended by a committee chaired by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi. NHAI was facing trouble in attracting private interest for the National Highways Development Programme of the government before the approval.
The authority offered 60 projects for bidding in 2008-09, but private players bid only for 22. Out of the project bid for, it could award only 12. ?More firms are coming up for negative grant projects now. We expect the interest to continue in the future,? a senior official in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said.