HSIIDC to Take Help of Consultant to Speed up KMP Expressway Construction

Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has decided to procure services from technical consultant provide pointers on some of the technical, commercial and legal options available to the corporation since the current contractor KMP Expressways Ltd has proved to be incompetent to complete the project and has missed the deadlines many times.

Since its inception in January 2006, the 135.6 km long expressway is being developed at a snail’s pace and has missed many deadlines. Reported by The Hindu, the project progress was just over 68% in August 2013 and after that barely any construction work is done on the expressway. According to the officials, approximately 31% of the construction work is still remaining on the expressway. Initially the project was planned to become operational by 29 July 2009 at the cost of INR Rs.17.6 billion.

The independent agency will work on the viability report that spells out various options available to the corporation in order to implement the KMP expressway construction in a speedy manner.

The Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway, also known as the Western Peripheral Expressway is one of the largest expressway projects in the country. The prestigious project connects important industrial centres in Haryana, and intersects 4 of India’s busiest National Highways: NH-1 near Kundli (Sonipat), NH-10 near Bahadurgarh, NH-8 at Manesar (Gurgaon) and NH-2 near Palwal. There project was proposed to involve the construction of 47 underpasses, 61 pedestrian crossings, 33 agriculture vehicles over passes, 31 cattle crossings, 26 bridges, 3 grade separators and 4 railway over-bridges at NH-1, NH-10 and NH-8.

While inviting bids from consultants, states, the HSIIDC report says that “The consultant shall also propose amendments required in the concession agreement in case HSIIDC decides to go ahead with one particular viable option”.

It has become more important for HSIIDC to speed up the project and finish the work because it has been too delayed and is being tracked by the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee, which is submitting bi-monthly progress reports.

In his report to Times of India, HSIIDC’s chief engineer, H R Raheja’s when asked if the KMP Expressways Ltd might be on its way out as the concessionaire, said “I can’t say at the moment what options we are going to go with. For now, we have to see what the possibilities and options we can explore, and this is why we are hiring an independent consultant”.

At present the concession period is 23 yrs 9 months with the KMP Expressways Ltd.