Date:07/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/07/stories/2007120754281900.htm

Business

18 cos. bid for Ganga Expressway

Special Correspondent

REL, DLF, GMR Group and JP Associates are among the bidders

To connect Greater Noida and Ballia
Developer will get revenue by tolling

NEW DELHI: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani owned Reliance Energy Limited (REL), along with the largest player in the realty business, DLF, are among the 18 companies that have submitted bids for constructing the ambitious Rs. 30,000 crore expressway that will connect Greater Noida to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.

Infrastructure major GMR Group and JP Associates are also among the bidders for the Ganga Expressway project. The project would be developed on the public-private-partnership (PPP) model.

Eight-lane expressway

The State Government seeks to build an eight-lane expressway connecting Greater Noida to Ballia. The 1,047-km expressway to be built along river Ganga, would help prevent floods, besides ensuring high-speed direct connectivity from Western to Eastern boundaries of the State.

An REL spokesman said here that the company had indeed put in the initial bids for the project. The REL-led consortium had already bagged a major project for constructing a 100-storey building, the tallest in South Asia, in Hyderabad.

The Expressway project is divided into four sectors, including the 253-km Greater Noida to Fatehgarh, including Farrukhabad Link at a cost of Rs. 7,631 crore; 305-km Fatehgarh to Dalmau (Raibareli), including Lucknow Link (Rs. 8,012 crore); 211-km Dalmau (Raibareli) to Aurai (Bhadoi), including Mirzapur Link (Rs. 6,124 crore) and 278-km Aurai (Bhadoi) to Balia link (Rs. 8,058 crore).

The developer will get revenue by tolling and will have land development rights.