BENGALURU: The cost of the 73.03-km Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project (to be renamed Bengaluru Business Corridor) has been finalised at around Rs 27,000 crore with the tender notification to be issued shortly.
The state government’s Pre-Tender Scrutiny Committee on Thursday gave the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) the green signal for the global tendering process after effecting a few modifications in the proposal. It has been 18 years since the project was first proposed to decongest the city and the cost has more than doubled since then.
“The notification could be released by Monday (January 29) or even before that. We are working on modifications suggested by the committee today (Thursday),” a senior BDA official said. This will be the third time that BDA will be calling for tenders after the previous rounds elicited no response.
The eight-lane access-controlled expressway will create a half-circle around the city and cut through the three taluks of Bengaluru North, Bengaluru East, and Anekal. Service roads will be provided along its route (not continuous) to provide entry and exit points, the official said.
The project will be a public-private partnership venture on the design, build, finance, operate and transfer model. “The concessionaire who comes forward to fund this project will be given a 50-year lease to operate and manage it. Toll collection and advertisement rights will be awarded to the contractor,” he said.
PRR was proposed in 2007 for a length of 65.5 km. It was to come up on 1,810 acres of land and was estimated to cost Rs 11,500 crore. However, the delay due to land acquisition issues and subsequent litigations has more than doubled the cost. “An additional 8 km has been added and it is now estimated to cost Rs 27,000 crore. The land acquisition cost takes the lion’s share and could touch up to Rs 21,000 crore,” he said.
Sharing specifics of the project, another official said, “PRR will extend to 73.03 km and come up on 2,569 acres and 29.5 guntas of land. It will commence from Tumakuru Road (NH-48) and go via Dodabballapur Road, Bellary Road, Old Madras Road, Whitefield Road and end on Hosur Road (NH-44).”
Farmers had filed multiple litigations against the acquisition of their land with the compensation being the major bone of contention. They demanded compensation as per the 2013 Land Acquisition Act while the BDA was willing to pay as per the Act that existed prior to it. The Supreme Court had given a verdict in favour of BDA.