The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is mulling the idea of tendering out the 262-km greenfield Bangalore-Chennai Expressway (BCE) under the hybrid annuity mode (HAM). Under HAM, a portion of the costs is borne by the government and the contractor is paid an annuity.
This is in place of the engineering — procurement — construction (EPC) mode where a one-time payment is made to the contractor, who is expected to complete the work within a stipulated time and cost, explained sources in the NHAI.
For contractors, the HAM is a better option since a portion of the initial financial cost would be shared by the government and, during the operations and maintenance period, they would get an annuity amount.
The cost of the 8-lane access-controlled expressway project is estimated to be around ₹20,000 crore.
It has been divided into three phases for operational ease.
Disbursal of compensation for project-affected persons is under way. V. R. Mahadevan Chairman, CII Chennai Zone, said that this expressway would be a game changer in terms of industrial development since it would provide for fast movement of goods.
The corridor should also integrate good and fast connectivity to the city centre. The government should plan industrial clusters along the expressway.
Taking possession of the lands in the three States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will commence shortly. The project is expected to commence by September.
Terms of reference
Meanwhile, recently, the expert appraisal committee (EAC) for special projects of the Ministry of Environment and Forests that met recently recommended the grant of terms of reference (ToR) for the BCE that would have a right of way of 90 metres and carriageway width of 37.50 metres.
It was subject to all standard conditions including obtaining of a No objection Certificate from the Archaeological Survey of India if any structures fell within a distance of 300 metres from the proposed alignment.
