Gujarat hires consultant for Transport Nagar

Feedback Ventures signed 2 MoUs during Vibrant Gujarat 2007.

As part of its plan to ensure more Private-Public-Partnerships (PPP) in enabling better road and transport facilities, the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB), Government of Gujarat, has hired Feedback Ventures, the Delhi-based infrastructure consultancy to prepare a project on the feasibility of establishing a 'Transport Nagar' for trucks most probably on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The project is likely to be a central truck terminal to serve over 750 trucks in transit on an everyday basis. The terminal could house a truck repair station, petrol pumps, a rest dormitory for truck drivers, ATMs, a medical dispensary and other facilities as per initial project planning.

Feedback Ventures has estimated that the project will need close to 18 acres of land preferably connecting all major highways and other roads frequented by truck operators.

The estimated cost for creating required infrastructure for the project excluding the cost of land could be around Rs 100 crore. Feedback Ventures were signed up for the project earlier this year and are expected to submit a report on project feasibility for the same in the next two-three months.

Officials from Feedback Ventures informed that once land was identified by GIDB, project structuring and management details would be worked out. Inviting bids from private operators for developing proposed infrastructure is also expected to get underway after finalising the project structure.

Feedback Ventures has been associated closely with Gujarat through the two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) it had signed with the government during Vibrant Gujarat 2007. One of those, a PPP project to establish water supply across Morbi has crossed the initial planning stage.

Feedback Ventures is in dialogue with local corporators regarding possible increase in tarrifs for local residents to enable setting up of the water management infrastructure. The other MoU, regarding engineering a better link between national highways to ports and small villages and towns in their vicinity is still in the planning stage.

Also, in a bid to expand its presence in Gujarat, the company is now thinking of foraying into the healthcare consultancy segment in Gujarat. The company operates in the healthcare segment in Delhi, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad among others and has catered to 6,700 hospital beds in the last three years.

"With a growing number of health care ventures opening up in Gujarat we are planning to construct hospitals and take up health care consultancy projects in the state, " said Harsh Shrivastava, senior vice president, Marketing, Feedback Ventures.