Tolled road from E-City to Attibele

Tolled road from E-City to Attibele
Deccan Herald

The nearly 15-km stretch from E-City to the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border will be operated and maintained by the three-party consortium behind the expressway project: Soma Enterprise Limited, Nagarjuna Constructions Company and Maytas Infra Private Limited. ....

As site work on the Central Silk Board-Electronic City Expressway kicks off on Saturday, the promoters of the project are also bracing to extend the scope beyond E-City.

The nearly 15-km stretch from E-City to the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border will be operated and maintained by the three-party consortium behind the expressway project: Soma Enterprise Limited, Nagarjuna Constructions Company and Maytas Infra Private Limited. The concession period for the stretch is the same as with the expressway--20 years.

Mr Ankineedu Maganti, Director, Soma Enterprise told Deccan Herald on Friday that the stretch would be exclusive of the expressway project.

The consortium will have no role in the construction component of the stretch, to be taken up by the National Highways Authority of India. The stretch will have a toll, to be collected near the Attibele entry point.

Mr Maganti said the expressway project involved “minimal land acquisition” because it was planned on an existing road frame.

“In certain areas, we might require land to widen the service roads and we’ll also need some land for ramps on which the interchange lands into Electronic City. Apart from that, I don’t see any need for land acquisition,” he said.

With speed traffic zipping on four lanes on the elevated stretch, traffic on the the six lanes and service roads beneath will be considerably reduced, Mr Maganti said.

Defends toll tariff

Terming the expressway an “expensive project”, Mr Maganti said the toll tariff for the stretch was fair. “When 50-60 per cent of traffic from Silk Board towards Electronic City can pass nine km in 10-12 minutes, I think these are fair toll rates,” he said.

The consortium has also plans to issue daily use passes (costing 1.5 times the single use toll) and monthly use passes (30 times the single use toll).

ESCALATION



While figures released at the Union Road Ministry level on Thursday billed the expressway as a Rs 450-crore project, Soma Enterprise clarified that the actual cost was likely to be Rs 760 crore. Mr Maganti said the cost escalation was due to project enhancements and rise in material costs.