After the firm that had bagged the contract for widening the National Highway-73 from Panchkula to Yamunanagar backed off, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has now floated two fresh tenders for completing the project.
The part of the road which is coming inside the wildlife sanctuary area or in eco-sensitive zone has been excluded.
As per the first tender, termed as request for qualification (RFQ), the 43.60 km road will be widened at an estimated cost of Rs 389 crore. The estimated period of completion is two-and-a-half years and the contractor has to maintain the stretch for four years.
According to the second request for qualification, the 41.95 km road will be widened at an estimated cost of Rs 337.70 crore. The estimated period of completion will be two-and-a-half years.
The contractor has to provide maintenance for four years for this too.
Both the projects will now be awarded under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.
The scope of work will broadly include rehabilitation, upgradation and augmentation of the existing carriageway of the UP/Haryana border-Yamunanagar-Saha-Barwala-Panchkula section of National Highway-73 to four-lane standards with construction of new pavements, maintenance of existing pavements, construction or maintenance of major and minor bridges, culverts, road intersections, interchanges, drains, etc.
{{/usCountry}}The scope of work will broadly include rehabilitation, upgradation and augmentation of the existing carriageway of the UP/Haryana border-Yamunanagar-Saha-Barwala-Panchkula section of National Highway-73 to four-lane standards with construction of new pavements, maintenance of existing pavements, construction or maintenance of major and minor bridges, culverts, road intersections, interchanges, drains, etc.
{{/usCountry}}The last date of filing bids is October 17.
“These two tenders are not under design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) model as it was earlier, so no toll plazas will be operated by the concessionaire (contractor),” said OC Mathur, project director, National Highway Authority of India, Panchkula.
“For the part which comes under the wildlife sanctuary, the tender will be issued separately,” he further said.
The widening of the part of the road which falls under the wildlife sanctuary Khol-Hi-Raitan is yet to get approval of the National Wildlife Board though having been given green signal by the state wildlife board on February 20.
Earlier, the National Highway Authority of India had awarded the project of widening of 104.77-km National Highway-73 to Gammon India. The private contractor was awarded the work at Rs 934.39 crore on March 30, 2012. The project was to be completed by January 2015.
But the project was delayed for over a year since it was not getting the clearance of the state wildlife board. It had to further seek the nod of the National Wildlife Board as well.
The major issue is of the road from Ghaggar bridge up to Jhuriwala which falls in eco-sensitive zone and the wildlife sanctuary, Khol-Hi-Raitan, in Panchkula, which had to be cleared by the forest department. Later, Gammon India walked out of the project.