IJM Corp Bhd has achieved another milestone with the opening of the Solapur-Bijapur tollway built by its Indian arm IJM (India) Infrastructure Ltd.
The four-lane 110 km tollway was inaugurated by India’s Road Transport and Highways Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari at a ceremony in Solapur (Maharashtra state) on Monday (April 25).
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded a 20-year concession contract to IJM India to develop the Solapur-Bijapur section of the new National Highway 52 between the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
At RM1.5 bil (2,325 crore rupees), the 110 km tollway was the largest Indian project undertaken by IJM in value and one of the largest contracts awarded by NHAI on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.
The project involved the rehabilitation, upgrading and widening of the existing two-lane carriageway to four-lane standards with bypasses and the construction of flyovers, bridges, road intersections, railway overbridges as well as the operation and maintenance of two toll plazas.
Provisional commercial operations and tolling commenced in December 2021. The construction of the tollway began in November 2018 and was provisionally completed in 38 months.
In spite of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic such as movement restriction orders, incorporating more stringent standard operating procedures on health and safety and supply chain disruptions, the project was successfully completed ahead of schedule.
To date, actual traffic volume and revenue are in line with projection. The project has generated positive operational cash flows since tolling commenced.
“Apart from providing earnings visibility and serving as a long-term growth driver that the completion of the Solapur-Bijapur tollway accords the group, we are proud to have played a role in expediting the improvement of infrastructure in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka,’ commented IJM Corp’s CEO & managing director Liew Hau Seng.
In February 2021, IJM India set a national record of laying bituminous concrete on a 25.54km lane in a short span of 18 hours for the Solapur-Bijapur highway. This is the first time in the history of NHAI projects that such a feat has been attempted and achieved by any construction company in India.
This achievement has gained entry into the Limca Book of Records 2020-2022 (India’s version of the Guinness Book of World Records) and the Asia Book of Records.
IJM India currently operates three tolled highways in India – the 110km Solapur-Bijapur tollway, the 68km Chilkaluripet-Vijayawada tollway and the 19.8km Dewas Bypass tollway.
Since 1998, IJM India has delivered several major road projects totalling more than 1,500 route kilometres along with 20km of urban rail projects as well as 20.20 million sq ft of prime residential and commercial development in India.
At 10.40am, IJM was up 4 sen or 2.31% to RM1.77 with 524,400 shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM6.45 bil. – April 27, 2022
