Hyderabad will soon boast of India’s longest flyover. A joint venture between Simplex Infrastructure and Somdatt Constructions has just won a bid for Rs 439 crore elevated expressway project from Mehdipatnam to international airport.

HUDA authorities opened the financial bids here on July 31st 2006 in the presence of all the six bidders (Gamon India, Punj Loyd, Italian Thai Development, Bangkok, Navyug Engineering, Simplex Infrastructure and IJM Corporation, Malaysia ) whose technical bids were cleared by the technical committee on Friday. Simplex Somdatt, a joint venture between Kolkata-based Simplex Infrastructure with headquarters at Delhi and Somdatt quoted the lowest amount of Rs.439 crores. It is 2.5 per cent less than the HUDA’s estimated construction value of Rs.450 crores for the longest flyover in the country. Gamon India quoted the next lowest figure of Rs.447.6 crores, Rs.8.6 crores more than that of lowest proposal. The third lowest financial bid was Rs.457.6 crores.

A detailed report on the financial proposal submitted by the Simplex Somdatt would be submitted to the technical committee which in turn would evaluate the proposal and forward it to the high-level committee. The high-level committee is headed by Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, and comprises Secretaries of Finance, Transport and R&B departments besides the HUDA Vice-Chairman.

In all probability, Letter of Acceptance would be awarded to Simplex Somdatt before August 10 and work should commence by August 20, said HUDA Chief Engineer Vivek Deshmukh.

With four lanes stretching over 11.63 kilometres, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, is calling this new flyover Hyderabad’s backbone. The proposed expressway will connect the heart of the city to the new international airport at Shamshabad, and Simplex and Somdatt plan to build it in just 26 months, using segmented constructions.

“Work will start on August 1, and the new airport will be ready in 2009, by which time, the flyover will be functional,” said Jayesh Ranjan, VC, Hyderabad Urban Development Authority.

The proposed flyover will begin at the heart of the city at Medipatanam. It will connect the inner ring road where there will be an underpass and then it will hit the national highway, which is being widened for the purpose. After another nine kilometres it will join the new airport at a trumpet junction.

The entire stretch currently takes an hour and a half to complete once the road is functioning it will take less than 20 minutes because there will be no stops along the way.

The flyover will make the airport more accessible to Hi-Tech City and Banjara Hills. But there are still some thickly populated areas on the way, where land acquisitions might become a problem. Even so, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority is confident that the city’s backbone will hum with zipping traffic in 2 years.

Sources:
www.domain-b.com 2 August 2006
www.hindu.com Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006