The proposed stretch of the Ganga Driveway project. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The road construction department is keen to select a firm for executing the Ganga Driveway project under the engineering procurement construction mode by June-end.

The department has started the process to execute the project with the government funds after failing to attract private investors. On April 18, Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited issued a notice inviting bids from firms to execute the project in the engineering procurement construction (EPC) mode.

In the EPC mode, the selected agency is paid by the government according to the work carried out by it. Sources at the corporation said the firm executing the project at an estimated outlay of Rs 1,950 crore to meet the civil works is likely to be selected by the last week of June.

The corporation is also the executing agency for the 23.5-km driveway project.

Road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the actual construction is likely to start from November this year. “After the selected firm is awarded the contract in July, three to four months would be given to it as mobilisation period. The department intends to start the construction work by November and complete the project in four years,” said Yadav.

Asked about the feasibility of executing the project under the EPC mode, he said: “The project would be successfully executed in the EPC mode as the funds would be provided by the government. This project could not be executed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode because private firms were not able to source the required funds because of slowdown of the economy.”

The department’s plan to execute the project in the PPP mode never took off. The government extended deadlines several times for the submission of financial bids from August 3, 2012, to October 19 but no bidder turned up.

After review, the department decided to execute the project in the EPC mode.

On March 25, the cabinet approved the department’s proposal to procure a loan of Rs 2,000 crore from Housing and Urban Development Corporation for executing the project. Another 2km of four-lane road was added to the 21.5-km driveway. The total project cost was revised to Rs 3,160 crore from the earlier Rs 2,234.46 crore.

Sources, however, said the project’s fate would depend on the government’s pre-bid interaction with the intending firms. “The firms would be taken on site visits and meetings would be held. An important condition of the EPC mode is that the contractor has a lot of say in the design and the concept of the project. If their suggestions are found valid, they would also be incorporated in the project,” said a senior officer of Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited.