Southern Bypass work re-awarded at Rs 923 cr, cost escalates 49%

The Southern Ludhiana Bypass will be a reality soon as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has re-awarded the work for this much-awaited and much-delayed highway project, officials have said.

The civil construction work was awarded to Ceigall India at Rs 923 crore, which was the lower of the two bids received while the second bidder, VRC Construction, had quoted Rs 1,141.76-crore bid amount, it is learnt. The deadline to complete the project is two years.

IT was made possible after the state government activated its official machinery and pulled all stops to provide land acquired for NHAI projects, several of which had hit roadblock for want of land.

The 25.24-km Southern Ludhiana Bypass is the fourth NHAI project that has been revived after getting parcels of remaining acquired land to resume the construction work recently.

The re-award after withdrawal in January last has escalated the project cost by a whopping 49 per cent from earlier Rs 957 crore to Rs 1,425 crore, up Rs 468 crore.

Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal told The Tribune, here on Tuesday that possession of 21.690-km of the total 25.240-km Southern Ludhiana Bypass project had been handed over to the NHAI and there was no issues in procurement of the balance 3.550-km land as well.

“The balance land will also be handed over to the NHAI as and when the construction work begins,” he assured.

The project, which was earlier awarded on June 2, 2022, to the same firm, was withdrawn on January 9 last due to non-availability of land on the request of the selected bidder.

It was done after the physical possession of the land acquired for the project could not be obtained and even the approved compensation amount could not be disbursed even two years after the big ticket project was approved.

After agreeing to revive the project following availability of 86 per cent land, the NHAI has decided to fund it under the National Highways (Original) works.

Recently, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora had approached Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari for resuming the construction of the Southern Ludhiana Bypass, which was among the terminated/ stalled NHAI projects for want of land in the state.

Responding to the MP’s representation, Gadkari had said, “I have got the matter examined and would like to inform you that the project was already awarded by the NHAI. However, the work could not be started due to unavailability of minimum possession of land for declaration of appointed date, even after a year of the award of work. Hence, the letter of award was withdrawn on the request of the bidder.”

Arora had apprised Gadkari that this six-lane bypass was crucial for Ludhiana as it was meant to significantly decongest traffic volume within the city and enhance connectivity between rural and urban areas, positively impacting lakhs of commuters and business owners.

“Restore the project at the earliest possible opportunity,” the parliamentarian had demanded while assuring to actively work with the state government and the district authorities to expedite the acquisition of any remaining land parcels for stalled highways.

This six-lane Greenfield highway project had been hanging fire for the past almost three years due to the non-availability of land following stiff resistance by landowners to part away with their landholdings under acquisition.

This big ticket infrastructure development project was planned to decongest the busy internal and external arteries in the industrial and financial capital of the state.

NHAI had withdrawn the letter of approval (LOA) granted for the project, citing delay in handing over the possession of the land as the main reason.

It was after Gadkari took a review meeting and shot off a strongly-worded letter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann that the then Chief Secretary Anurag Verma had pushed the official machinery to expedite the disbursement and physical possession of land acquired for NHAI projects while tactically engaging with the protesting farmers.

Inter-connectivity, short distance, Ring Road

The corridor will provide inter-connectivity between the NH-44, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway NE-5, Amritsar-Jamnagar NH-754A and will reduce distance between nodal points and travel time significantly to provide most efficient connectivity and shortest route for the connected destinations. It will also complete the ring road around Ludhiana.