The ambitious Ganga driveway, entailing construction of a 20.5-km-long road connecting west Patna with the eastern end of the city, has attracted some big infrastructure sector players, including Reliance Infrastructure.

Simplex Projects Ltd, Transstroy India Ltd, Welspun, Indus-C&C Consortium and Nagarjuna Construction Company are also in the fray for lapping up the project. All these firms came out in flying colours in the technical bid. One of them would be awarded the job of executing the scheme after the financial bids are opened on August 3.

Road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph: “Six companies have cleared the technical bid for the construction of Ganga driveway and now we are in the process of conducting the financial bid. The name of the company which will execute the project would be announced on August 3, 2012, the day the department would open the financial bids.”

He said: “The company quoting the lowest amount for constructing the Ganga driveway will be awarded the work.”

Asked about the technical bid process, Nand Kishore said: “The companies interested in a certain project have to fulfil certain criteria. We see if a company has the calibre to complete the project in the stipulated time or not in the technical bids. Based on these, the firms are shortlisted for financial bidding.”

The four-lane Ganga driveway would provide hassle-free connectivity between west and east Patna. While the western end of the road would be near Digha Ghat, its eastern end would be at Didarganj. The new road would bring down the travel time between the two ends of the city from the existing two hours to just 25 minutes.

The total cost of Ganga driveway project is Rs 2,234.46 crore. “The Centre would provide 20 per cent of the project cost (Rs 446.89 crore). The state government would invest the same amount and an additional Rs 116.6 crore towards meeting the cost of land acquisition and shifting other utility services,” said Nand Kishore, adding that the company selected for the project in the financial bid would have to invest a minimum of Rs 1,340.78 crore.

According to rules, in any infrastructure project implemented in the PPP mode, a maximum of 40 per cent of the project cost can be raised through viability gap funding (VGF). The Centre and the state concerned share the amount of VGF.

The minister said the state government had started the land survey work for identifying the land those to be acquired for the project. “Land survey has begun and small parks would be constructed on vacant space.”

On the beginning of construction work, Nand Kishore said: “Once the company is selected, it will be given six months for resource mobilisation. It will have to make arrangements for the gadgets and other important stuff in that timeframe. It means, the construction work will begin in the first week of February, 2013. The project is expected to be complete by 2015.”