GVK Power and Infrastructure has bagged the bid for the Rs.2,815 crore Shivpuri-Dewas national highway project in Madhya Pradesh, by offering a premium of Rs.180.90 crore. Bids for the 330km project were opened on Tuesday, August 3.
“The government was rather expecting a 15% viability gap funding (VGF) for the project of Rs.422.25 crore. The project has a concession period of 30 years,” said a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official.
The second-best bidder, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, put in a bid with a premium of Rs.110 crore, while the third-best, Essar Projects, offered a premium of Rs.100 crore.
This continues the trend of bidders paying a premium to bag highway projects, to the delight of the Government, which in normal course would have had to chip in with grants.
In two other projects whose bids were opened on Friday, 29 – Rs.1,232 crore Orissa border-Aurang-Saraipalli and Rs.900 crore Hospet-Bellary-the authority got a premium of Rs.47 crore as against a total VGF demand of Rs.705 crore expected from the private sector.
In the case of the Orissa border-Aurang-Saraipalli project, the Government expected the developer to demand a VGF of Rs.381 crore. The winning bidder, B Seenaiah, however, put in a bid with a premium offer of Rs.29 crore to the Government.
GVK has earlier implemented the Jaipur-Kishangarh build-operate-transfer project, a 90km segment of the Golden Quadrilateral. The project involved the conversion of a two-lane track to a world-class six-lane highway at a cost of $154 million.
The company has also submitted requests for qualification for eight projects announced by the NHAI.
