Contrary to the traditional view that infrastructure developers are reluctant to go to the North-East, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry on Monday saw a rush of bidders for an Arunachal Pradesh project.

In the bids, IVRCL-Sushee consortium emerged best bidder.

Widening roads

The project is to widen Nechipu-Hoj stretch, a part of Trans-Arunachal highway project, to strengthen a 311-km stretch, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,486 crore.

“The IVRCL-Sushee has demanded the lowest level of semi-annuity — or two annual payments from the Government — of Rs 39 crore. The developer will build, operate and maintain the highway for 12-and-a-half years,” said sources in the know.

About twelve bidders submitted financial bids for this project. They include Madhucon, KNR-PLL, BSC-C&C, Coastal-SREI, Sew, KMC-, Gayatri, Era-Sibmost, Sushee-IVRCL, DSC, Gammon and Abhijeet.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has also received a better bid this time.

Last year, for the same project, DSC had emerged as the best bidder and had demanded Rs 92 crore of semi-annuity payment for implementing the project. The bid had to be cancelled on concerns by the Environment Ministry.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure had last year approved a new model for bidding this project.

> mamuni@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW