NHAI re-invites bids for work on Kundapur-Goa stretch of NH 66

Mangalore - The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has re-invited bids (Request For Proposal) for widening the 187-km stretch on the National Highway 66 between Kundapur and Goa border via Karwar.

The last date for submitting RFP, according to a notification by the NHAI uploaded in its website, would be April 30, 2012.

Sources toldThe Hinduthat the NHAI had been forced to re-invite bids as only one bidder had responded to its earlier notification of February 16, 2012. The last date for submitting the RFP as per the earlier notification was March 30, 2012.

35 COMPANIES ELIGIBLE

According to the February 16 notification the NHAI had shortlisted 35 companies who were eligible for bidding.

The NHAI had proposed to widen the highway as four/six lanes under phase IV of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP). It would be taken up on Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Transfer (DBFOT) Toll basis.

Though reasons for poor response (for the RFP) for taking up the project from companies shortlisted were not known, it is stated that the land acquisition issues could have come as a dampener for companies.

WRIT PETITIONS

Sources said that 22 writ petitions were filed opposing land acquisition before Karnataka High Court under the on-going project under Phase III of the NHDP. The NHAI had invited bids for the Rs. 1,655-crore Kundapur-Goa border project after Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPAC), under the Union Department of Economic Affairs, Union Ministry of Finance, approved the project earlier this year. PPAC is an inter-ministerial committee in charge of approving infrastructure projects. Quoting the final feasibility report of the project prepared by a private company, sources said that 14 major bridges, 41 minor bridges, six road-over-bridges (RoBs), and three road-under-bridges (RuBs) would be built. Four tunnels and an equal number of flyovers would be built. There would be 53 bus bays and four truck bays. The Government would have to acquire 260 hectares of private land in 66 villages and 122 hectares of forestland for completing the project.

source: The Hindu