The alignment of the 1,047-km Ganga Expressway between Greater Noida and Ballia awaits approval from the Uttar Pradesh government.
A tentative schedule of the alignment was submitted to the government during a presentation made by the UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) last month.
Senior officials of the JP Group, which has been awarded the estimated Rs 30,000 crore project, were present during the presentation. The expressway is a flagship project of the Mayawati government.
The alignment is likely to be ratified by the end of this month, when the process of land acquisition can begin. According to the agreement, UPEIDA would acquire the land, but would negotiate for the best compensation to the land owners and farmers.
According to sources, the government had also suggested some changes in the alignment and the company was working on it.
A senior government official said the project was moving on schedule. “Work on a project of such magnitude has to be handled with utmost care and transparency, which may be time-consuming,” he said adding there were no administrative or legal hurdles to the project now.
Besides, there are issues of compensation to the farmers, whose land would be acquired and their rehabilitation, which needs to be settled before acquisition can take place.
Earlier, the government had notified 633 villages spanning 15 districts falling along the proposed Expressway on the left bank of the river Ganga.
On January 24, 2008, a letter of award was issued to JP Associates Ltd for the implementation of the project. The company was required to incorporate a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and sign the concession agreement within 60 days.
JP Ganga Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (JPGICL) was incorporated on March 18 and on March 23, a concession agreement was signed between Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) and the JP Group company.
The project, which follows Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) model, is scheduled to be completed by 2012. The physical infrastructure will remain with the JP Group for 90 years on lease and automatically revert to the state government on its expiry.
The JP Group was awarded the contract after a bidding process that saw several bigwigs in the infrastructure sector expressing interest.
The project was divided into four parts and the bids were invited for each part separately. The JP Group, which had bid for all the four parts, was awarded all the four contracts.
