13.1.12

The Bangalore - Chennai Expressway

The proposed 250-km Bangalore-Chennai expressway, to be built at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore on a new alignment, could come up as a pilot project involving Japanese expressway majors. The Japanese government, which made this proposal to the highways ministry on Thursday, has been asked to submit a detailed framework. The corridor is likely to reduce travel time between the two cities to two hours. The expressway will have a design speed of 120 kmph. On Thursday, a delegation, led by Japanese transport and tourism minister Takeshi Maeda, met highways minister C P Joshi to discuss the project. “We are preparing a detailed project report and it will be complete by March. They have huge interest to develop this stretch since there is a considerable concentration of Japanese firms in that region. We have told the group that highway projects in India are awarded through open bidding and 100% FDI is allowed in this sector,” Joshi said. He added that the two governments could take a decision mutually in case they agree to take up this project on the basis of government-to-government understanding. “But that deprives private players of participating in bidding of this project.” Joshi said other models like floating a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with investment from stakeholders, including from Japan, could also be an option.

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