NHAI restarts process to 4-lane Y’nagar-P’kula stretch of NH-73

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, January 5

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has restarted the process to four-lane the Yamunanagar-Panchkula section of National Highway-73 after termination of the agreement with Yamunanagar Panchkula Highway Private Limited last March.

The NHAI has invited tenders for the project and fixed January 27 as the date to open bids for award of construction work. This was disclosed by NHAI to Ram Kumar Radauri, former president of the District Bar Association, Jagadhri, in response to an application filed under the RTI Act.

The NHAI and Yamunanagar-Panchkula Highway Private Limited entered into an agreement on July 30, 2012, to four-lane the said project. However, the concessionaire requested mutual termination of the agreement after it failed to start construction on the highway as a portion of it passes though Khol Hiratan Wildlife Sanctuary and its eco-sensitive zone. The NHAI terminated the agreement on March 14, 2014.

This time, the NHAI is learnt to have divided the 105.570 km stretch of NH-73 into three sections and has invited separate bids for each (see box). The highway would be constructed in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode instead of design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis, as was to be done earlier.

Under the new provision, the contractor would construct the road and hand it over to the government. The contractor shall be responsible for maintenance of the project during the defect liability period.