Gadkari, Fadnavis lay stone for Rs 1,183-cr NHAI proj

Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Thursday laid the foundation stone for Rs 1,183-crore highway widening project, awarded to MEP Infra by NHAI, in the state.

"MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd today announced that it has received the letter of appointed date from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the eight-laning of existing four-lane Vadape to Thane section of NH-3 (new NH-848) in Maharashtra," MEP Infra said in a statement.

The Rs 1,182.87-crore project will be executed on Hybrid Annuity Mode, it said.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by Fadanavis and union road transport minister Gadkari at Dive Anjur in Thane district, the statement said.

MEP Infra had achieved financial closure for this project in terms of the concession agreement executed with NHAI, by tying up project finance of Rs 567.78 crore, and YES bank is the lead banker to this project, it said.

Commenting on the development, Jayant Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director, MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd, said, "We are proud of this achievement which reaffirms the positivity of the Hybrid Annuity model that has been propagated by the ministry. The financial viability of such projects will ensure the speedy growth and expansion of our road infrastructure."

MEP is currently one of the major players in the Hybrid Annuity space with 10 successful bids for projects across Maharashtra and Gujarat aggregating Rs 7,942 crore covering 1,893 lane km.

The about Rs 24 km project consists of widening and construction of existing four-lane road to eight-lane road.

The project envisages one new railway overbridge and two new major bridges on Thane Creek.

The total project cost of Vadape to Thane package is Rs 1,182.87 crore with the construction period of 30 months from the appointed date.

This project is under the new Hybrid Annuity model, which is a mix of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and build operate transfer (BOT) system. The Authority and the concessionaire share the total project cost in the ratio of 40:60, respectively.