KUALA LUMPUR: IJM Corporation Bhd has achieved a milestone with the highly anticipated opening of the Solapur-Bijapur tollway built by its Indian arm, IJM (India) Infrastructure Ltd.
In a statement today, the company said India's Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the 110-kilometre tollway at a ceremony in Solapur, Maharashtra state on Monday.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) 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 billion, the four-lane 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.
Chief executive officer and managing director Liew Hau Seng said the accomplishments and timely completion of the project reaffirmed the group's capabilities and track record as a builder of choice and high-performance concessionaire.
"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.
"With a stable of prominent projects completed in India in recent years, IJM India has emerged as a premier DBFOT specialist and have set standards for road construction in the country's infrastructure sector," he said/
IJM India currently operates three tolled highways in India — the Solapur-Bijapur tollway, 68-kilometre Chilkaluripet-Vijayawada tollway and 19.8 kilometre-Dewas Bypass tollway.
Since 1998, IJM India has delivered several major road projects totalling more than 1,500 route kilometres along with 20 kilometres of urban rail projects as well as 20.20 million sq ft of prime residential and commercial development in India.