NHAI applies brakes on City-BIA expressway

Traffic will not generate expected revenue, says the consultant appointed by the government

 The State’s own project to construct a dedicated expressway to BIA had been shelved earlier.

The paper work for the High-Speed Rail Link to BIA is moving at a snail’s pace. But now it has been revealed that the much talked about elevated expressway project of NHAI, connecting BIA with the City is already a thing of the past.

On June 29, 2008, NHAI had submitted to the High Court that the project is not feasible as per the report of the consultant appointed by State government.

Answering a query by counsel G R Mohan, who had sought to know the project feasibility in the Court, the NHAI cited a report by the consultant appointed by the State, which states that the project is not viable on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis despite the 40 per cent viability gap funding by the State.

Pointing out that the traffic towards BIA being 10,716 passenger car units, the NHAI submitted that the present and the future traffic cannot generate sufficient revenue of an estimated Rs 635.75 crore to fund the project.

“The project is expected to generate a Financial Internal Rate of Returns (FIRR) of only 3.59 per cent. To generate a minimum of 12 per cent Financial Internal Rate of Returns, the State needs to contribute 90 per cent as the viability gap funding,” the NHAI claims.

But the submission has not dampened the hopes of the State. A top official in Infrastructure Development Department said that the scenario has changed following several developments in and around the BIA.

“There are lots of industrial parks are  coming up here. There is an increase in the number of airport passengers. There are also several aerospace units have been planned  in the vicinity,” said an official source.