IRB bags ₹6555 cr BOT stretch on Ganga Expressway

IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd has bagged ₹6,555 crore project to develop a 129-kilometre section between Meerut and Badaun on the Ganga Expressway project. This is the largest build-operate-transfer (BOT) asset bagged by IRB, which will take the company's order book to ₹19,210 crore.

"IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd has received a Letter of Award from the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the nodal agency, for developing the Group 1 of the prestigious Ganga Expressway Greenfield BOT Project in the state of Uttar Pradesh," the company said in a release.

"The company will develop the 129.7km stretch from Meerut to Badaun under Group 1 of the four groups of the project, with cost outlay of ₹6,555 crore, under the Design, Bid, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) model with the traffic linked expandable concession period up to 36 years that includes 3 years for construction," the release said.

The Ganga Expressway is 594-km-long greenfield project of 6 lanes (expandable to 8 lanes), connecting Meerut and Prayagraj.

"This will be our third project in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It’s the testimony of our specialisation in managing the large sized BOT projects with the in-house rich domain expertise and resources, which have been instrumental and demonstrative in creating the world class safety and quality highways infrastructure for India over last two decades," said Virendra D. Mhaiskar, chairman & managing director of IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd.

IRB Infra has fully completed and commissioned the 124km-long Agra-Etawah BOT project worth ₹3,044 crores in UP, and is in final stages of completing and commissioning its 99km Hapur-Moradabad BOT project with capital outlay of about ₹3,345 crore.

Ganga Expressway will connect Meerut and Prayagraj passing through 12 districts of the UP. The greenfield expressway is being constructed at an estimated cost of about ₹36,230 crore.