NHAI Signs Agreement To Develop Guwahati Ring Road For Rs 5,729 Crore

The National Highway Authority of India signed a concession agreement to develop a 121 km long Guwahati Ring Road at a total cost of Rs 5,729 crore on a build-operate-toll mode with zero grant.

The concession period of the contract is 30 years, including four years of construction, according to a press release by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.

To support the project, the Government of Assam will bear 50% of the land cost along with providing exemption from royalty on aggregates and the state portion of GST, contributing about Rs 1,270 crore, the release said. The total cost of the project is approximately Rs. 7,000 crore.

The Guwahati Ring Road project includes three sections consisting of a long, four-lane, access-controlled Northern Guwahati Bypass; widening of the existing 8 km long bypass on NH 27 from four lanes to six lanes; and improvement of the existing 58 km long bypass on NH 27, the release said.

The Guwahati Ring Road will enhance connectivity on NH-27's East-West Corridor, ease traffic in Guwahati and northeastern states, and connect key towns like Siliguri, Shillong, and Jorhat.

As a part of the Government of India’s ‘Vision 2047’, a large number of high-speed corridors are envisaged to be developed.

The Government of India has been promoting public-private partnerships for build-operate-transfer projects. To encourage their adoption, several changes have recently been made to the modal concession agreement for BOT and provisional BOT. This marks the first contract signed under the revised MCA, setting the stage for many more such agreements in the future, the release mentioned.