Earlier, when scrapping the Maytas contract, the government had forfeited the Rs.71 crore (Rs.710 million) deposited by the consortium as performance guarantee, and as advance towards the Rs.30,311 crore (Rs.303.11 billion) it promised to pay over the concession period of 35 years.

The government this time has decided to double the performance guarantee money. The company being awarded the contract will have to deposit one percent of the total cost as performance guarantee.

Earlier it was half a percent.

The three other consortiums to have qualified in the earlier process will have to start afresh and will not be given any preference, officials said.

The other three consortiums which had cleared the technical bids earlier were led by Essar Constructions, Malaysia's Magna Allmore, and Reliance Infrastructure. The fourth, led by GVK, had backed out.

The central government had granted 20 percent of the cost (Rs.23.63 billion/Rs.2,363 crore) as Viability Gap Funding (VGF) -- a scheme aimed at reducing capital cost of projects by credit enhancements.

Though Maytas had refused to avail of this, the government said the fund can still be used.

The government is hopeful that the three-route, 71-km project will be completed in three to four years.