Punj Lloyds taking up Rs 300-crore roads project in East Godavari

Punj Lloyds Limited, the second largest construction company in the country after L&T, is executing a roads project worth Rs 300 crore in the East Godavari district.

The project, which was awarded by the National Highways Authority of India, involves laying of the four and six-laned highway roads, construction of bridges, and a railway flyover bridge between Rajahmundry and Tuni.

The cost of total project is Rs 500 crore out of which Rs 300 crore worth work is being executed by Punj Lloyds Limited while the Gammon firm is executing works worth a little more than Rs 200 crore.

The project being implemented and nearing completion included the Rs 212-crore worth Dharmavaram-Tuni 60-kilometre four-laned national highways project and the 35-kilometre-long Goutami-Diwancheruvu highway project worth Rs 82 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, Punj Lloyds Limited project manager S Jayaraman said the Dharmavaram-Tuni project was commissioned recently while the Diwancheruvu work was nearing completion. Part of the 60-kilometre road included laying of six-laned roads and partly four-laned roads.

This apart, the total scheme includes construction of a railway flyover bridge at a cost of Rs 9 crore and another overbridge at a cost of Rs 5 crore. The flyover at Kathipudi near Tuni was laid with a reinforced earth wall instead of reinforced concrete for economy reasons. The earth wall is as strong as the concrete wall, Jayaraman added.

"The Diwancheruvu-Goutami bridge and the 35-kilometre four-laned highways are also in the final phases and will be completed by the end of March. About 20,000 trees are being planted within the nearly 100-kilometre project purview on the road dividers to beautify the national highways.The Tuni project is implemented on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis," he said adding, the company has so far spent Rs 3 crore on laying of one kilometre road.

According to Vikas Bhargav, site manager of Punj Lloyds, the company is currently executing Rs 500 crore worth of projects in Oman and Turkey and Rs 600 crore worth of projects in Kazakhistan, Singapore and Switzerland.

"Within the country, the company is executing projects of Reliance, BPL, IOC and ONGC. At Jamnagar in Gujarat, the company has constructed cycroginic tanks for storing liquified natural gas at a cost of Rs 300 crore. It is also executing a power project of Jindals Limited at Chattisgarh. Apart from these, a host of other projects are in the pipeline including the Delhi metro rail project and railway sleepers manufacturing project. Most of the Punj Lloyds' projects are located abroad. In fact, the highway project taken up in the East Godavari district is the first in Andhra Pradesh," he said.

The company, Vikas said, is not enthusiastic about undertaking irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh as there are many practical problems involved.

C K Singh, plant equipment in-charge, said the Punj Lloyds juggernaut involving hundreds of vehicles, stone crushers and mixtures, tippers and excavators will move to the North by April or May after the completion of the highways project in East Godavari.

Roads to progress

• The project being implemented and nearing completion included the Rs 212-crore worth Dharmavaram-Tuni 60-kilometre four-laned national highways project and the 35-kilometre-long Goutami-Diwancheruvu highway project worth Rs 82 crore
• The total scheme includes construction of a railway flyover bridge at a cost of Rs 9 crore and another overbridge at a cost of Rs 5 crore
• Construction major currently executing Rs 500 crore worth of projects in Oman and Turkey and Rs 600 crore worth of projects in Kazakhistan, Singapore and Switzerland