HSRL moves forward after Government accords sanction

HSRL moves forward after Government accords sanction

Anil Kumar Sastry
Pre-application meeting of bidders on March 25
Revised estimate, excluding land costs, to be

Rs. 4,313 crore

Land will be offered free to the private partner by Government

BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation (KSIIDC), the nodal agency to implement the high speed rail link (HSRL) between the City Airport Terminal (CAT) on Mahatma Gandhi Road to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), has restarted the tendering process after the government accorded official sanction for the project.

The tendering process was held up in September 2008 at the stage of pre-application conference.

Now, the KSIIDC has again floated global invitation for Expression of Interest (EOI) for the project.

It said interested bidders could send in their queries with regard to Request for Qualification (RFQ) till March 16.

The pre-application meeting will be held on March 25, KSIIDC said.

Pursuant to approval by the Cabinet, the State Government accorded sanction to the HSRL at a revised estimate of Rs. 4,313 crore (at existing prices), excluding the cost of government land, on public-private partnership (PPP).

A Government Order (GO) issued in this connection last week here said the cost, estimated at Rs. 3,716 crore in 2007, had to be revised owing to various reasons.

Several factors, such as integration of HSRL with the Metro at the CAT (Rs. 50 crore), market cost of land (Rs. 532 crore), interest during construction (Rs. 673 crore), cost due to inflation (Rs. 782 crore) and additional cost of airport terminal (Rs. 387 crore) have necessitated revision of estimate, the preamble to the GO said. The estimated cost at the time of completion will be around Rs. 5,767 crore, it added.

Land acquisition
The required land, 65.96 hectares, will be offered free to the private partner by the Government.

While the Government will have to acquire private land (44.19 hectares), including land belonging to the National Highway Authority of India (8.61 hectares) on National Highway 7, it will have no issue with land belonging to Government (12.2 hectares) and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (0.96 hectares).

Having estimated the cost of private land acquisition at Rs. 532 crore at the present market rate, the Government has said any amount in excess of Rs. 532 crore for land acquisition would have to be borne by the private player, according to sources in the Infrastructure Development Department.

The sources said the KSIIDC will have to incorporate an amendment into the RFP document in this connection. The RFP documents have been sent to the Union Finance Ministry for its approval and to incorporate 20 per cent viability gap funding, the sources noted.