Nitish Kumar

Patna, June 6: The state’s private investment dream in the road sector would materialise tomorrow after chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurates the construction of a 5.575-km-long bridge across river Ganga.

The bridge would connect Bakhtiyarpur (Patna district) on NH 31 and Tajpur (Samastipur district) on NH 28. Apart from construction of the bridge, the project entails construction of 45.393-km-long approach road on both ends of the bridge.

The Telegraph had reported the proposed construction of the bridge under public-private-partnership (PPP) mode on November 17, 2010.

Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL) is investing over Rs 900 crore for constructing the bridge. It would be the first road project in Bihar implemented under the PPP mode.

The total project cost is Rs 1602.74 crore. Of it, Rs 100 crore would go in acquiring land for the project. Rs 917.74 crore, would be invested by NECL, Rs 277.50 crore by the Centre and Rs 307.50 crore by the state government. The Bihar government would also bear the cost to be incurred on land acquisition.

The selection of NECL was done on the basis of competitive bidding. The construction company had demanded 38.93 per cent of the total project cost as viability gap funding (VGF), which was lowest among the bids received.

According to rules in any infrastructure project being implemented under the PPP mode, a maximum of 40 per cent of the project cost can be raised through VGF. The Centre and the state concerned share the VGF. The central approval is a must for such projects.

“The bridge would be open for public use in 2015 and the construction company has started mobilising resources for its timely completion,” road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph today.

He said the land acquisition was going on and the road construction department had provided funds to the district administrations of Patna and Samastipur to pay compensation to the land losers.

The minister said the NDA government was committed to build more bridges across the Ganga so that people residing in different regions did not have to travel long distances to cross the river.

“As things are moving now, there would be at least one bridge across the Ganga at a distance of every 50km in four years,” Yadav added.