Fresh bids called for Jaipur-Kishangarh NH

P. Manoj

NEW DELHI, Nov. 23

RELIANCE Industries Ltd, GVK International, Group 5 (South Africa), Bin Hafeez (West Asia) apart from J&P (Cyprus) and L&T will get another opportunity to bid for developing the six-lane highway project between Jaipur and Kishangarh on NH-8 in Rajasthan on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis under the direct tolling method.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has written to all the six pre-qualified bidders inviting fresh financial bids after modifying certain tender conditions. The last date for submitting the fresh price bids has been fixed for December 7, Government sources told Business Line.

L&T and J&P, which were pre-qualified in their individual capacities, had put in a joint price bid in the last round of bidding. But, the remaining four short-listed bidders had opted out of the race without submitting the financial bids.

The bidders, which stayed away from submitting their financial bids, were of the view that the project would be unviable if developed as a six-lane facility right from the beginning in the absence of adequate traffic flows.

Sources said that GVK International had already conveyed its interest to bid in the fresh round of financial bidding for the 93 km-long project, estimated to cost Rs 673 crore.

NHAI has informed the bidders that it was now willing to give the up-front capital grant amount to be quoted by the bidders in one go rather than splitting it up into two parts _ 25 per cent during the construction phase and the balance 15 per cent during the maintenance period of the project _ as per the existing arrangement for disbursing the capital grant to private operators.

According to the bidding criteria, the bidder quoting the lowest capital grant from NHAI would be awarded the contract. In the tender documents, NHAI has limited its capital grant liability to a maximum of Rs 244 crore, out of which 25 per cent would be paid to the winning bidder during the construction phase and the remaining 15 per cent during the maintenance period of the project depending upon the amount of capital grant quoted by the bidder.

NHAI has also decided to extend the concession period for the project to 20 years from the earlier period of 15 years. Further, NHAI has introduced a revenue-sharing clause in the concession agreement whereby the private operator will have to share the revenues from toll collections with NHAI if the traffic flows exceed certain projected levels.

However, NHAI will not provide any traffic guarantee to the private operator who will have to bear the shortfall in revenue if the traffic falls below the projected levels, sources said.

Besides, the charges incurred by the private operator for transferring the facility back to the Government at the end of the concession period will be borne by NHAI and not by the operator as stipulated earlier.

The lone financial bid submitted by the L&T-J&P combine in the last round was a conditional one, which had set terms that were deviations from the tender documents, particularly on the issue of capital grant.

The Board of NHAI during a meeting held on September 19 considered and recommended the lone bid to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for taking a final view on the matter.

While the Ministry also concurred with the deviations sought by the lone bidder, it said that fresh price bids should be invited from all the pre-qualified bidders so as to provide a level- playing field to all without leading the project into a legal wrangle.