Peripheral Ring Road tender invitation postponed

BDA says high level committee approval pending for tender documents 

Citing technical reasons, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has postponed the tender invitation for the 74 km long Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, which has been on the anvil for nearly two decades.

It was only on March 31 this year, that the BDA issued a tender notification for the construction of PRR connecting Tumakuru Road to Hosur Road under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. However, the development authority could not upload the tender documents in the e-procurement portal as the necessary approval did not come from the authorities concerned.

BDA Chairman S.R. Vishwanath told The Hindu that the high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary has to give a formal approval for the tender documents. Once this is done, revised dates for inviting tenders will be decided. “It is a technical requirement and is expected to come in a few days,” said Mr. Vishwanath.

As per the previous invitation, the pre-bidding meeting was scheduled for April 2022 and the last date for submission for bids was fixed for May 18, 2022. 

Sources in the BDA said that some decision has to be taken at the government level regarding fixing a price for land acquisition and the revenue sharing module with the private partner, which will be necessary when the BDA holds pre-bidding meetings with the interested investors.

“Acquiring land for the project — 2,560 acres — has been a complex issue. At the government level, a decision has to be taken on fixation of the price. Another crucial decision is what should be the revenue sharing module with the private partner. Once the government decides on crucial issues, the investors will have more clarity during the pre-bidding meeting,” said source. 

Recently, farmers whose land was identified for the project, raised their objections to the BDA floating tenders without finalising the compensation package.