KNR opens Rs 550 crore highway

Hyderabad-based KNR Constructions has commissioned its Rs 550-crore annuity project on the Hyderabad-Nagpur highway last month, its executive director K Jalandhar Reddy said.

The 48-km stretch between Islam Nagar and Kadthal is on national highway (NH)-7.

KNR is executing the project along with Patel Engineering. KNR holds 40% and Patel the rest in the project.

In a build own transfer (BOT) - annuity project, the developer builds the project and the government pays it a fixed amount every six months over a specified period. The toll is collected by the government.

“We should be drawing our first annuity installment of Rs 44 crore in September,” said Reddy.

The project was awarded in May 2007 and has a concession period of 20 years, including the construction period of two-and-a-half years. The highway falls under the North-South Corridor of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP)-Phase II.

The project was running behind schedule owing to delays in land acquisition by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
KNR-Patel’s other road project, also on an annuity basis, had also got delayed. The road, which runs from Devanahalli in Karnataka to the Andhra Pradesh border, was completed late last year after a delay of close to three months.

Most highway projects in the country overshoot their completion schedule because not all the requisite land is acquired on time.
When Kamal Nath took over as minister for road transport and highways, he proposed that 80% of the land required be acquired before the project is awarded.

“We have taken part in some 20 highway tenders in the last few months and hope to bag some,” Reddy said.

KNR has an order-book of Rs 1,800 crore, of which 90% comes from highways and the rest from irrigation.