APCO, Ramky & GR in race for part of Delhi-Meerut Expressway

NEW DELHI: APCO Infratech, Ramky Infrastructure and GR Infra are in the fray for the UP Gate-Dasna section of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

The three firms have bid for the Rs 2,000-crore contract that starts from Delhi-UP border till Dasna in Uttar Pradesh. Though the total length of the road is only 19.2 km, it is among the most congested highways in the country and a big engineering challenge.

The section involves shifting of electricity lines and Ganga water supply pipelines coming from Upper Ganga Canal to the water plant in Ghaziabad. The road serves as a major link between Delhi-Ghaziabad and several sectors of Noida and Greater Noida West.

“Three companies have bid for the project. We will award the contract very soon. We expect to complete the work on entire expressway by 2018,” Raghav Chandra, Chairman, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), told ET.

Work on the remaining part of Meerut expressway is already on and is expected to be completed by 2018. A 22.2-km section from Dasna to Hapur has already been awarded to a concessionaire. The section in Delhi from Nizammudin to UP Gate has also been awarded.

The fourth stretch of the expressway package — a 6 lane 46-km greenfield stretch from Dasna to Meerut — would be awarded soon. Total cost of the expressway is expected to be Rs5,000 crore. It would be country’s first access controlled highway.

The project is being awarded under the hybrid annuity model. The model is a mix of engineering, procurement and construction and buildoperate-transfer formats, with the government and the private companies sharing the project cost 40:60.

The toll is collected by the government and a fixed annuity with a profit margin is given to the private partner. Chandra said that the Meerut expressway along with the eastern peripheral expressway would be completed in record time.