Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon has secured the contract to develop a 121 km stretch of highway in Assam, valued at Rs 49 billion, under a Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) Toll model. The company has committed to constructing the highway without any grant from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The other bidders for the Guwahati Ring Road project, which is divided into three sections, included a joint venture between Adani Group and Ashoka Buildcon, which requested a Rs 135 crore grant, and state-owned Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, which sought Rs 370 crore from NHAI. DRA Infracon emerged as the lowest bidder for the project.

This marks one of the first highway projects to be awarded by NHAI on the BOT Toll model in over a decade, following a revision of the model concession document to make these projects more attractive to investors.

After facing financial challenges with BOT Toll model projects in the past, NHAI shifted to the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) for highway projects under public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements. However, this latest development signals a revival of the BOT Toll model, a key step in modernising India's highway infrastructure.