[Aroy]

Originally Posted by Lalvaz

Thank you for the cost breakup. However, is this cost of 1 km for 9 crs, valid for tarred roads or concrete roads?

This is for Bituminous surface. Concrete roads a much more expensive. Premix concrete used is around Rs 5K/cu.m including labour delivered at site. Now for a four lane carriageway with shoulders the calculation is
CW = 7.25+7.25, Sh=3m, Th = 1m (total, in 3 layers), so volume = 17.5 cum/m or 17.5k cum/km = 8.77 Cr/km for the concrete only. Add to that cost of preparation, base course and earthwork, Culverts and Bridges and final cost would go beyond 15 crores. The upside is that there will be very little maintenance cost for nearly 40 years.

One problem of concrete carriageway is that it has to cure for at least 28 days, where as the normal pavement is ready for use within hours of the final layer being laid. That means that separate lanes for existing traffic have to be laid (added cost) for the whole length.

[D33-PAC]

This thread is full of nothing but speculation. Maybe in the initial years toll roads were lucrative but they're nowhere near anything close to the money machine people here claim.

If any of you follow Indian industry and business, you'll know one of the epic mistakes JaiPrakash Associates (legend of North India's civil contracting industry) made was getting involved with the Yamuna expressway.

In fact it led to their downfall and threw the empire into a financial crisis.

Assume they're under-reporting revenues and income from tolls, then why do they have to sell other assets to pay off debt ? JayPrakash had to sell their other divisions because of the epic white elephant their Yamuna expressway is.

[simplyself]

Toll collection on NHs doesn't go into operator's kitty directly. NHAI has personnel at toll plazas. The money collected goes to NHAI and after deducting the Govt share, is passed back to operator.

Contrary to popular belief, maintenance terms and conditions are stringent and operator incurs considerable expense.

Most BOTs are struggling. That's why the Centre has revised certain conditions regarding fund raising.

Average toll collection on an average NH is around 24 to 30 lakhs per day.

[avira_tk]

The expressway tool is surely profitable, it was even more so earlier when standards were lower. None of these companies finish the road before they collect toll, no service road, no wayside amenities especially at toll booths, no proper dividers with barricades, either natural or artificial to prevent glare from incoming traffic, the "facilities" are endless. This is the norm.

The cost can be recovered in around 4 years tops, this according to NHAI itself. The only reason they don't make a profit is because the PCU numbers are fudged to make the toll collection potential seem amazing. The profit is in the construction. Here are two examples from south Bangalore, BETL last night had ten cars on two lanes entering E-city phase 1, there were around 5 employees hanging around outside the toll booths doing nothing. The fastag lanes were blocked, the toll booths are operating at half capacity but the company has plenty of money to pay people to just stand around. It won't be a surprise if they're not making a profit. NICE is another more egregious example of profiteering at public expense, toll costs 4 times as much, horrible maintenance, no returns and to top it off, a major road in a city is tolled which is against the law. NHAI keeps a lot of election funders in business.