Lanco Kanpur Highways Limited

cancelled

On 29th December 2010, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) awarded a 12-year concession (including construction period of 18 months) to Lanco group, for the strengthening, improvement,2-laning,operation and maintenance, and tolling of 282.76kms of Aligarh-Kanpur section of National Highway 91,in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Under the contract, Lanco was responsible for the design,construction,finance, operation and maintenance,strengthening and widening the existing 2-lane carriageway to 2-lane divided carriageway.The scope included construction of new pavement,rehabilitation of existing pavement, construction and/or rehabilitation of 3 major and 29 minor bridges, culverts, road intersections,interchanges, drains, construction of 5 new Rail-over-Bridges,4 toll plazas and other wayside amenities etc.The expansion project, part of the National Highway Development Program (NHDP-IV), was expected to ease traffic congestion and give significant stimulus to trade and commerce in the entire region. Lanco Group established Lanco Kanpur Highways Limited (LKHL),a special purpose vehicle on 18th January 2011, to implement the project. The SPV won the tender through international competitive bidding, conducted by NHAI, by requesting the lowest grant of US$ 61.6mn (INR 2879.1mn @46.7 INR/USD). Under the contract, the SPV was to recover the capital costs and operating costs including returns through tolling, during the term of concession. Lanco Infratech Limited was the EPC contractor for the project. The concession agreement was signed on 11th March 2011. The project attained financial closure on 9th September 2011. The estimated capital cost of the project at the time of financial closure was US$ 208.9mn (INR 9755.4mn @46.7 INR/USD). Other details of financing was not available at the time of collection of this information. The project was expected to start construction in September 2011 and was expected to be completed by March 2013. The construction work was delayed due to pending approvals and the right of way to be arranged by NHAI. In September 2014, NHAI finally cancelled the concession for the project. At the time of collection of this information, LKHL was contesting this termination notice from NHAI.