The Telegraph report on the driveway published on August 20

Patna, Nov. 12: The dream drive from east to west in the city along the banks of the Ganges is, in all likelihood, barely four years away.

Bihar road construction department minister Nand Kishore Yadav today said that with the Centre giving its nod to the project, the process to construct the 20.5km Ganga driveway would begin by the end of this month. “The aim is to start the construction in the 2012-13 financial year and complete the project by 2016,” he told The Telegraph.

To begin with, the government would invite request for qualification (RFQ), through which interested firms would submit their technical bids. “Based on the proposals received through this process, we will shortlist the agencies that have the technical ability to manage the ambitious project,” the minister said.

He added that the RFQ process would be completed within five months, after which a pre-bid meeting would be held for the bidders. The bidders would be selected on the basis of the RFQs.

The pre-bid meeting would be followed by the process of inviting financial bids from eligible firms. The selection of an agency would be done for carrying out the project on the basis of established rules of such competitive biddings. “We are trying to start the work on the project in the next fiscal. We are approaching issues such as inviting bids in a way that would help us meet the goal,” Yadav said.

The Telegraph had in its August 20 edition first reported about the project, which is to be implemented in the public-private-partnership mode. It entails construction of the 20.5km four-lane road. It would connect west and east Patna. While the western end of the road would be near Digha Ghat, its eastern end would be at Didarganj.

The total cost of the Ganga driveway has been pegged at Rs 2,234.46 crore. The Union government would share a maximum of 20 per cent of the project cost (Rs 446.89 crore), while the state would invest the same amount.

The state would, however, invest an additional Rs 116.6 crore for meeting the cost of land acquisition and shifting of other utility services.

The proposed driveway would have a 7.6-km elevated stretch between Collectorate Ghat and Gai Ghat. There is also a provision of providing connectivity of the driveway with the existing road (Ashok Rajpath) that runs parallel to the proposed road.

A drive from the city’s western end to the Eastern limit takes around two hours. Once the driveway comes up, one would be able to cover the distance in 25 minutes.