JP bags Rs 30,000 crore UP expressway project

Jaiprakash (JP) Associates bagged the controversial Rs 30,000 crore
Ganga expressway project, to be built from Greater Noida to Balia. The
total length of the expressway will be 1,000 km and will be completed
in four years. UP CM Mayawati will lay the foundation stone for the
project on Monday.

A senior official of a company which had bid for the project said that
JP bid was very aggressive as they quoted around 50% lower than
Reliance Energy, the second lowest bidder. The entire stretch is
devided into four sectors - Greater Noida to Fatehgarh of 253 Km,
Fatehgarh to Dalmau (305 km), Dalmau to Aurai of 211 (km) and Aurai to
Balia 278 (km).

JP was not the lowest bidder in all the sectors separately. But, it
also had submitted a combined bid at Rs 293 crore for all the four
sectors, which turned out to be the lowest and enabled it to win the
contract. Reliance Energy also had submitted the combined bid at Rs
590 crore, which was the second lowest.

According to a source, while in the first sector between Greter Noida
and Fatehgarh, JP was the lowest bidder at Rs 63 crore, Unitech was
the second lowest at Rs 304 crore. Reliance Energy had bid for Rs 306
crore the same sector. But, for the second sector betweed Fatehgarh
and Dalmau, Zoom developer was the lowest bidder at Rs 24 crore. JP
had bid the same sector for Rs 70 crore.

But, JP had also submitted a combined bid for Rs 293 crore, which was
lower than its sector-wise bid, which totalled at Rs 410 crore.

The government has earmarked around 63,110 hectare land for the
project. But, because of the aggressive bidding, the source said that
the project could be implemented for 10% of the land earmarked for the
purpose.

Most of the political parties including Samajwadi Party, BJP, Congress
and political organization like Jan Morcha led by former PM Vishwanath
Pratap Singh are opposing the project as it will lead to acquisition
of the fertile land along the river Ganga.