Guwahati: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will develop a 121-kilometre-long stretch through Guwahati city’s eastern side as Guwahati Ring Road on build-operate-toll mode at a total expenditure of Rs 5,729 crore with zero grant.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, in a statement on Thursday, announced that NHAI has executed a concession agreement with the contractor M/s Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon Pvt. Ltd in the presence of NHAI chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav and senior officials of NHAI.
The concession period of the contract is 30 years, including the construction period of four years.
“Providing impetus to the project, the Assam government will bear 50% of land cost, provide exemption from royalty on aggregates and state portion of GST, contributing about Rs 1,270 crore. Thus, the gross project cost is about Rs 7,000 crore,” the release said.
The project comprises three sections, including a 56-km-long 4-lane access-controlled Northern Guwahati Bypass, widening of the existing 8 km bypass on NH 27 from four lanes to six lanes, and improvement of the existing 58-km-long bypass on NH 27.
Notably, a 3-km-long major bridge over the river Brahmaputra will also be constructed as a part of the project.
The Guwahati Ring Road will provide seamless connectivity to long-distance traffic plying on the East-West Corridor of NH-27, which is the gateway to the Northeast region of the country.
The development of the Ring Road will help to decongest Guwahati City and neighbouring Northeastern states by bypassing major traffic coming from West Bengal/Bihar to Silchar, Nagaland, and Tripura.
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The project will also provide seamless connectivity to major towns in the region, including Siliguri, Silchar, Shillong, Jorhat, Tezpur, Jogigopha, and Barpeta.
