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Mumbai, Apr 5: Larsen&Toubro (L&T) has bagged its first annuity-based road project from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for four-laning the 76-km Palanpur-Swaroopgunj stretch on NH-14, linking Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The Rs 550 crore project involves widening of the existing two-lane corridor to four lanes, construction of six major bridges, 20 minor bridges, two ROBs, one flyover, 14 underpasses, two toll plazas and other wayside amenities, a company release to BSE here said.

As an important link on the East-West corridor, this highway project will run across the border districts of Gujarat and Rajasthan. It will be a main route for commercial traffic towards East from Kandla and Mundra ports, while popular hill station Mount Abu is near this corridor.

Secured against international bidding, the order will be executed by L&T's engineering construction and contracts (ECC) division in 30 months.

NHAI is scheduled to pay the annuity to the company in half-yearly installments, for a period of 15 years.

The company will design, engineer, finance and contract these road stretches and maintain them for a period of 17 years and six months through a special purpose company - L&T Interstate Road Corridor Ltd.

''This is the tenth BOT (build, operate, transfer) project secured by L&T, of which five are located on the golden quadrilateral, three on North-South corridor, one on the East-West corridor and one on the State highways. The cumulative value of these projects exceeds Rs 3,700 crore,'' the release said quoting L&T's Executive Director K V Rangaswami.

UNI