UP govt selects 5 companies for Ganga Express Highway project

Lucknow, Jan 13 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh government tonight announced the selection of five companies for the thousand-km long Ganga Express Highway project.

State Industrial Development Commissioner Atul Gupta told reporters here that Gamon India Consortium, Unitech Ltd, Jhoom India Consortium, Reliance Energy Consortium and J P Associates had been selected after final bidding for the Rs 40,000 crore project.

The evaluation committee had received 14 bids by different companies but only five could make it to the final selection.

Mr Gupta said some companies had sought extra time to place their tenders but thier request was rejected as ample time was already granted for the process.

The selected companies had given a total of 14 proposals for the project in the fields of finance, price evaluation and technical studies.

A high-powered committee, headed by Chief Secretary P K Mishra, will look into these proposals tomorrow after which it be approved by the cabinet.

The Express highway is to be completed in four phases and Chief Minister Mayawati will laid the foundation stone of the project in Baliya and Noida respectively on Januray 15, which is also her 52nd birthday.

UNI NAB/MB KD RAI2358