Cost of Eastern Highway project goes up

NEW DELHI: Planning Commission can't always get away by blaming other ministries for delaying projects. Its role in the delay of a 135-kilometre road project – the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) – that would substantially ease congestion on Delhi roads is itself under the scanner. In all, the cost has gone up by Rs 300 crore in three years to Rs 2,699 crore, which is 13% of the original cost.

When the six-lane project was first conceived by the road, transport and highways ministry in 2006 the Planning Commission had 'concurred' with the proposal to declare the Eastern Expressway a National Highway.

Subsequently, in 2007 it also supported the proposal during a meeting of inter-ministerial public-private partnership approval committee (PPPAC). With other clearances in the bag, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) invited bids but a contract could not be awarded as despite five extensions, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infrastructure was the sole bidder.

Then, in July 2009, Kamal Nath, the then road and transport minister scrapped the project. Last year, when NHAI revived the project, Planning Commission proposed that EPE be treated as a bypass. As a result, the toll rate on the project would be 1.5 times higher than any other National Highway stretch in the country. This, it said, was in line with the new toll policy.

Official documents accessed by TOI show that the road transport and highways ministry has trashed the arguments raised by Planning Commission, saying the proposal would make the project unviable and the basic purpose of diverting traffic would not be met. The ministry and the NHAI are arguing that EPE acts as a link road, connecting Palwal on NH-2, passing through NH-91, NH-24 and NH-1 before touching Kundli. Therefore EPE is not a bypass; rather, it is a connecting highway, linking various national highways, they said.

Besides, along with the proposed Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE) being built by the Haryana government it will act as a ring road. DSC Ltd has bagged the contract to build WPE. In the absence of EPE, anyone looking to avoid passing through Delhi roads would opt for WPE, which is also a toll road. The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) did not find merit in plan panel's argument.

But CCI did ask PPPAC to examine the issue and decide if the toll rate should be 1.5 times the normal toll. But it seems that when the PPPAC met late last month, the Planning Commission had to be persuaded by the finance ministry to agree to treat the EPE as a normal highway to ensure that it remained a viable project. NHAI officials said the nod to take up this six-lane highway as a normal NH would make the project financially lucrative for private players.

"We are hopeful of getting premium in this project. While approving this project government clearly mentioned that there will be no government while awarding this expressway," said a senior NHAI official.
source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Cost-of-Eastern-Highway-project-goes-up/articleshow/8883425.cms

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