National Highways Authority of India, on 18 January 2006,signed a concession agreement with L&T for four-laning the Krishnagiri-Thopurghat section of NH-7. This is the first BOT Concession Agreement signed for a national highway project project on North-South corridor (NHDP Phase II) in Tamil Nadu.

The agreement was signed by NHAI with L&T Krishnagiri Thopur Toll Road Pvt Ltd (an SPV formed by L&T through its associate L&T Infrastructure Developments Projects Ltd). The contract, valued at Rs.372.7 crore, involves four-laning of the 62-km section (km 94 to km 156, NH-7) on BOT basis.

The agreement also involves a negative grant to NHAI, implying that the concessionaire - L&T Krishnagiri Thopur Toll Road Private Limited - will pay NHAI a grant of Rs.140.04 crore during the concession period of 20 years, inclusive of construction period of 30 months.

This is the first BOT contract to be awarded in Tamil Nadu, under NHDP-II. Recently seven BOT contracts were signed in the state for other phases of NHDP, mainly NHDP-IIIA.

Under NHDP-II (North-South, East-West Corridors of total length 7,300 km), a total of 16 BOT contracts (13 BOT Toll and 3 BOT annuity) have been awarded so far. The total value of these 16 contracts is Rs.6,011 crore and the length covered is 800 km. The total length to be awarded under BOT mode under the overall NHDP-II is 2,179 km.