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ECONOMY:
NOIDA-DELHI FLYWAY
Smooth
Going
India's
technologically most advanced toll bridge opens, steering clear of delays
and cost overruns
By Malini
Goyal
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"We
have come half way. Marketing the bridge will be a challenge."
Pradeep Puri, Managing Director,
Noida Toll Bridge Co
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Months
behind schedule. Cost overruns. Poor quality. Infrastructure projects
in India usually suffer from one or all of these predicaments. But January
24 witnessed the unveiling of a project that steered clear of the usual
hurdles. The Noida Toll Bridge Company's eight-lane expressway bridge
connecting Delhi to its thriving satellites Noida and Greater Noida has
other firsts to its claim. It was built in 25 months-a full four months
ahead of schedule. It is the first infrastructure project to have been
part-funded by money raised from the capital market. And it is technologically
the most advanced bridge in the country, with 27 toll counters, including
"gold" lanes through which vehicles will pass without stopping.
Electronic sensors will deduct the toll from a pre-paid card. "The
flyway should set a benchmark for public-sector projects," says Pronab
Sen, adviser in the Planning Commission.
Called the
Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) Flyway, the 550 m bridge (with 7.5 km of total
constructed road length) promises to cut the travelling time between Noida
and south Delhi's busy Ashram crossing phenomenally-from 30-40 minutes
earlier to 5-7 minutes. That means better driving, lower fuel consumption
and lesser pollution. The price for all these are toll charges which range
from Rs 7 for two-wheelers to Rs 35 for buses and trucks.
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Toll
Tales
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•Construction
completed in 25 months, four months ahead of schedule.
•Largest
private toll bridge in India with a total investment of
Rs 408 crore.
•Needs
80,000 vehicles using it per day to recover cost in about 22 years.
•A
test case for private investment in roads.
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The smooth
ride of the flyway, however, comes after a rough road to its completion.
A series of land disputes, frequent government changes in Uttar Pradesh
and protests by owners of the land acquired for the project threatened
to delay the flyway. "The road sector is a very risky investment.
It was a combination of government leadership, private capital, professional
management and state-of-the-art technology that made this possible,"
says Pradeep Puri, managing director of the Noida Toll Bridge Company,
who left the security of an Indian Administrative Service job for the
challenge in infrastructure management.
But
successful completion is only half the battle won. The company, which
is an offshoot of the Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services, must
now ensure that the flyway becomes a viable commercial venture. That will
depend on how much traffic it can attract. The project has a total investment
of Rs 408 crore (including land acquisition cost, construction cost, interest
on debt, inflation and contingency). Projections say the flyway must attract
80,000 vehicles a day to recover its total costs in about 22 years (including
maintenance and running expenses). The flyway is betting on attracting
a large section of the seven lakh vehicles that travel between Delhi and
Noida every day. If it works as efficiently as it promises to, the flyway
could also attract a rising proportion of the thriving population east
of Delhi. Noida's current population is five lakh which is expected to
swell to 20 lakh in 15 years.
Obviously
the company has a challenging marketing job at hand. "The company
is actually aggressively marketing like any other service," says
Cherian Thomas, vice-president, operations, Infrastructure Development
Finance Corporation. As Puri says, "We have to now turn into a marketing
company to be successful. We are just half way through."
Another
challenge is the political pressure being exerted for waiving the user
charges. Already a section of MLAs from Uttar Pradesh and at least two
state ministers have voiced their opposition to the concept of the toll
charges on the ground that the poor will not be able to pay. But deft
handling can prevent such populist gimmicks. Such as Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Rajnath Singh himself inaugurating the flyway and driving through
it, thus setting a precedent that no one can oppose. Maybe what the DND
Flyway needs is more VVIPs to drive through.
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