Reliance Infra’s Delhi-Agra road upgrade still in cul-de-sac

Published: Thursday, Oct 6, 2011, 8:00 IST
By Ashutosh Kumar | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA

Reliance Infrastructure’s Rs1,928 crore national highway upgrade project between Delhi and Agra has been stuck over clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for more than a year now – a development that is likely to lead to cost escalation in the project.

The 180 km project spanning Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is part of the Phase Five of the National Highways Development Programme, which envisages expansion to six-laning of 6,500 km of highway network.

The phase assumes significance as upgrade of the entire golden quadrilateral (5,846 km) to six-lane standards is a part of it.

Reliance Infrastructure bagged the project from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in May 2010. The company, however, has still not been able to start construction on the road.

The project is being developed on a build, operate and transfer (BoT), toll basis. Analysts, on conditions of anonymity, peg the cost escalation at round 10% as of now.

Read more…