Bharathpur Mahua Road Project

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National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) awarded a 25 year concession to Madhucon Agra-Jaipur Expressways Limited (MAJEL) to upgrade, finance, operate and maintain the 57 km section on National Highway 11 (NH-11) between Bharatpur and Mahua, in the western state of Rajasthan. The project included four-laning of the existing two lane stretch, construction of one railway over bridge, one major bridge, one flyover, five underpasses and twenty one bus bays. The concession term included a construction period of 30 months. The concession agreement between NHAI and JRTCL was signed in October 2005. This road upgrade project was part of NHAI’s National Highway Development Project (NHDP) Phase III A. The objective of NHDP Phase IIIA was to four lane stretches of national highways carrying high volume of traffic, connecting state capitals with the NHDP Phases I and II network and providing connectivity to places of economic, commercial and tourist importance. MAJEL, a special purpose company established exclusively to implement this project, was jointly owned by Madhucon Projects Limited and SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited. However, the exact ownership structure of MAJEL was not publicly available. The Madhucon-SREI consortium won the project in an international competitive tender, conducted by NHAI, by bidding for the lowest grant of US$ 13.7 million. India’s highway development policy allowed ‘viability funding’ by NHAI to the tune of 40 percent of the capital costs as grant to the concessionaire, subject to competitive bidding. The total capital cost of the project was estimated at US$ 66 million. The project reached financial closure in March 2006. MAJEL was to be compensated for the capital and operating costs from the tolls collected during the concession term. Construction work on the project began in April 2006 and was expected to be completed by October 2008. As per NHAI, the project was completed in March 2009 and is currently operational.