A stretch of National Highway 33 near Bundu. File picture

Ranchi, Nov. 16: Hopes of a smoother and possibly faster commute between Ranchi and Jamshedpur have been revived with 11 bids coming in for a project to convert the two-lane busy stretch of the state’s lifeline, NH-33, into four lanes at an estimated cost of Rs 1,500 crore.

“We have received a good response. Out of 18 pre-qualified bidders, 11 responded to final financial bids. It will take another 10 days to award a contract to the lowest bidder,” National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) general manager (technical) A. Srivastava told The Telegraph over telephone from Delhi.

Srivastava, who looks after NHAI projects in Bihar and Jharkhand, refused to reveal the bidders but said the project, postponed at least five times since August, was now likely to start within the year.

The project to widen the 162 km stretch up to Mohulia is part of phase III of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP). It was to be executed a couple of years back but efforts to finalise contracts failed thrice leading to delays.

Now, the project, which has a time frame of two-and-a-half years, would be executed under BOT (annuity basis) under which the NHAI would reimburse a fixed, pre-decided annual sum to prospective bidders on completion.

During the concession period (till NHAI gives the annual annuity), the onus of maintaining the road according to NHAI specifications would lie with the prospective bidder.

The state government is sparing no effort to ensure the project wasn’t held up any further. Chief secretary A.K. Singh is monitoring it personally and has already held several meetings to finalise the land acquisition processes.

As of now, the Ranchi-Jamshedpur stretch is a two-lane highway, but given that the volume of daily traffic has gone up, converting it to four lanes is the only way to ease congestion and facilitate a quicker ride between the steel city and the state capital.

NHAI has already begun work on widening two other sections of NH-33 — Barhi to Hazaribagh and Hazaribagh to Ranchi — by employing construction majors.

While the Barhi-Hazaribagh project is being executed under BOT (toll basis) by a Abhijeet Group company, the Hazaribagh-Ranchi project is being executed under BOT (annuity) by a consortium of construction majors Punj Lloyd and IL&FS.

For the Ranchi-Jamshedpur project, several construction majors were short-listed early this year. Among them were IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited, Reliance Infraventure Ltd and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, L&T, Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd and Punj Lloyd Infrastructures Ltd.