GDA to rope in pvt firms for major infra projects

CASHSTRAPPED Projects to be built on the PPP mode include a cyber hub, sports city

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) on Tuesday decided to implement various projects on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode to meet the problems arising out of shortage of funds for the ongoing projects.

In its board meeting held on Tuesday, the development body decided to put on PPP mode the 20-km northern peripheral road (NPR), sports city at Madhuban Bapudham, cyber hub (food court) at Kaushambi and the proposed solid waste management (SWM) plant at Indirapuram.

Officials said the state government will finalise the decision for choosing the PPP mode for these projects.

“Since we don’t have spare funds, the proposal for the NPR project to be constructed on PPP mode has now been sent to the state government. Similarly, we also intend to do the cyber hub and the SWM project at Indirapuram on PPP mode,” said Ritu Maheshwari, vice chairperson, GDA.

The NPR project has been stuck for the past 4-5 years. It was intended to connect NH-24, NH-58 and the Pipeline Road ( the road from Murad Nagar to Tila Morh, behind Hindon Airbase). In 2013, when the project was conceived, it was pegged at around ₹456 crore, excluding the cost of land acquisition. The present land acquisition cost is estimated at around ₹550 crore.

So far, land for nearly 15km of the road project has been acquired. Initially, the road was proposed to be 100 metres wide. But it has now been reduced to 45 metres to cut cost.

Apart from the NPR, the authority has also decided to resort to PPP mode to enable proper functioning and construction of waste to energy plant at Indirapuram.

It has proposed over eight acres of land earmarked as landfill site behind the sewage treatment plant at Shakti Khand. For the project, the officials are already in talks with a public sector undertaking, which will construct and also maintain the area besides converting the daily solid waste to bio fuel.

The GDA is also eyeing two major chunks of land of 4,000 square metres each at Kaushambi. The authority plans to merge the two plots, earmarked for school, with already available land chunk of 10,000 square metres at Kaushambi. The total 18,000 square metres will be used to develop the food court project.

“The merger of the plots will require change in layout plan. These were offered under bids for the purpose several times but there was no response. The proposal for the cyber hub was placed before the board but it will be put up again, keeping in mind the feasibility and viability issues. We have decided that the project will be done on PPP mode,” Maheshwari said.

For their ambitious cyberhub project, the authority has invited expressions of interest for selection of transaction advisor.