Ranchi, April 23: Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s promise notwithstanding, the upgradation of the 300km Barhi-Bahragora road, considered to be the state’s lifeline, is unlikely to be completed in a hurry.

Cost escalations apart — in the past four years, project costs have doubled to around Rs 2,500 — the real reasons why this crucial road has not been upgraded to a four-lane highway of international standards as promised by the Prime Minister yesterday, lie in government policy and the fear of Naxalites.

The state government invited tenders twice in the past four years but not a single contractor turned up to bid for the project that has been offered under Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme.

Under the scheme, a construction major is expected to invest the entire money initially and hope for returns through toll tax in the next 20-30 years.

And even though Jharkhand’s experience with BOT has not proved success-ful twice, the state government was now thinking of trying once again, given the Prime Minister’s impetus to the project.

But there is an alternative.

The Union ministry of road transport and highways has now tweaked the BOT scheme to work on annuity basis.

Under this concept, a construction major would invest the money, but the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) would have the onus of collecting toll and disbursing it to the contractor through instalments every six months.

But the state authorities want to try out the old system one last time.

“We will invite project bids under BOT. If this time, too, we fail to find contractors, we would opt for the BOT-annuity system,” said H.C. Arora, the New Delhi-based chief general manager of NHAI who looks after projects in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Bengal, Bihar and New Delhi.

The project is part of phase III of the ambitious national highway development programme and is divided in four packages — Barhi to Hazaribagh, Hazaribagh to Ranchi, Ranchi to Rargaon and Rargaon to Mohulia in East Singhbhum district bordering Orissa.

The tenders, Arora added, would be invited soon and were likely to be for individual packages to woo more number of construction majors.

Arora said a kilometre of a four-lane road could cost anywhere from Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore. This would bring the total cost of the project to around Rs 2,500 crore at least.

The other highway announced by the Prime Minister was the Ranchi-Vijaywada corridor.

According to officials in the ministry, the road would be a two-lane facility with over 200km coming under Jharkhand.

“The project is at a nascent phase now and is expected to be included under phase IV of the national highway development programme,” said B.N. Sahay, the regional officer in the ministry.