Nagpur: Larsen & Toubro, Tata Projects, Navayuga Engineering, Ircon International, Reliance Infrastructure, IL&FS Transportation are among the 33 bidders for Super Communication Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway.
Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) opened bids for the multi-crore Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) project connecting India’s financial capital with central India last week.
“In all there are 33 bids submitted from over 33 companies. Some of the bids submitted are from joint ventures while a few are by foreign construction firms and most of them are Indian infrastructure companies,” a senior state government official said.
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The companies include Gammon Engineers and Contractors Pvt Ltd, CQCE-Roadway Solutions India Private Ltd joint venture, Dilip Buildcon, Gayatri Projects, China Harbour Engineering Company, Oriental Structural Engineers Private Ltd, Sadbhav Engineering, PNC Infratech, Ashoka Buildcon, NCC, Todini Construzioni Generali, Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, Guangdong Guanyue Highway & Bridge Company, Guangdong Provincial Changda Highway Engineering Company are among the other bidders.
The high turnout by Indian companies is because they are focusing on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects only as public-private partnership projects are going through rough patch.
The bids will be scrutinised by MSRDC over the next one month and depending upon the eligibility on technical specifications shared by these companies, they will be shortlisted for final round of bidding.
The shortlisted companies will be given Request For Proposal (RFP) and 45 days to submit the same following by scrutiny of those bids too before awarding the construction work.
Meanwhile, MSRDC is also working on options to raise debt to foot the bill of Rs 46,000 crore, the estimated project cost. SBI Capital Markets Ltd is helping MSRDC raise the loan amount.
Out of the total cost of the project, cost of civil works is estimated to be Rs 27,650 crore, Rs 13,000 crore for land acquisition and land pooling, Rs 2,500 crore for node development and another Rs 500 crore for utility shifting. Toll will be levied to repay debt.
This 706.2-km greenfield alignment will have 3+1 lanes on either side of the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway. Ten districts will get connected between Mumbai and Nagpur, as it will pass through Ghoti (near Nashik)-Aurangabad-Amravati.
The project would be undertaken in 16 different packages in order to achieve the ambitious deadline of 2019. The project will be executed in two phases, wherein in the first phase four-laned road will be paved followed by six-laning of the highway.
Along the corridor, 24 townships will also be developed which would need about 10,800 hectare (450 hectare for each node). The state government has already announced land pooling policy to acquire land to develop the ‘Maharashtra Samruddhi Corridor’, wherein 25%-30% of the pooled land will be returned to the owners as ‘developed land’ apart from annual crop loss compensation amount.
Land requirement for the highway alone will be 8,520 hectare, while the wayside amenities would need 1,500 hectare taking the total to 20,820 hectare.
Of this 20,820 hectare, 399 hectare is forest land, 2,922 hectare fallow land and 17,499 hectare agricultural land.
The Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway would have a feature of emergency plane landing option in each revenue division of the state, or on three stretches along the corridor.
