Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Company Private

Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Company Private Limited Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Company Private Limited is a special purpose vehicle incorporated in November 2001 by a group of overseas and Indian Sponsors after being awarded by NHAI with a 30-year Concession to Design, Finance, Build, Operate and Maintain the Second Vivekananda Bridge ( Now Sister Nivedita Bridge) in Kolkata across the river Hooghly on National Highway -2. The Group of Overseas Sponsors formed a company, known as Pacific Alliance-Stradec Group Infrastructure Company ( PASGIC) in Mauritius and PASGIC together with Larsen & Toubro Ltd formed SVBTC Pvt. Ltd for implementation of the project.Post implementation of the Project ,The Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Company Private Limited (SVBTC) is majority held by the Pacific Alliance-Stradec Group Infrastructure Company (PASGIC), Mauritius together with L&T IDPL (Formerly L&T Holdings Limited) a subsidiary of L&T Limited holds balance minority stake.The project itself and its process of award as a Public –Private Partnership project , being the first in Eastern India, is having a long history of events. The Project was conceived as early as in 1991 and the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways through its State agency –PWD- NH wing ,Govt of West Bengal initiated a feasibility study. The Consultant submitted the feasibility study report in the year 1994 , locating a bridge alignment parallel to the Old Vivekananda Bridge ( Wellingdon Bridge 1934), only at distance of 50 M downstream. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways decided to float a bid on PPP basis , which was then a new concept in Highway and Bridge sector. This was the second PPP initiative in the country after the four lane Highway project – Jaipur to Kishengarh in the state of Rajasthan. After two rounds of Bidding , this consortium came out as successful bidder in late 1995. But a considerable time was taken to develop the pre-project requirements like Land acquisition, Rehabilitation & resettlement, Clearances from Ministry of Environment, Kolkata Port Trust, Indian Railways and sanction of downstream project like Belgharia Expressway. Govt. of India had to initiate Pre-construction work of Rehabilitation & Relocation (R&R) ofRs 108 crores and to sanction another Rs 139 crore for the Belgharia Expressway approach of the Project. In course of these prepatory works, the Project was transferred to the newly formed National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the year 1998. After accomplishing major pre-project works , NHAI executed the Concession Agreement on September 2, 2002 with the special purpose vehicle – SVBTC Pvt. Ltd to Design, Finance , implement including Operations & Maintenance with a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of Rs 120 crores.The Financial Close of the project was achieved in March 2004 and the Design & Construction was commenced on 1st April 2004. The Project was completed on 28th June 2007 and was put to commercial operations from 4th July 2007. The six lane 6.1 KM long project including a 880 m long cable supported extradosed bridge was completed in a record time of 39 months despite its complexities in Design and Construction.