L&T, RInfra, Tatas, 15 others bid for Nagpur-Mumbai e-way proj

As many as 18 companies including L&T, Tata Projects-CENGIZ joint venture, ILFS and Reliance Infrastructure have submitted their bids for the ambitious Rs 46,000-crore Nagpur-Mumbai Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway, implementing agency MSRDC said today.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) today opened the financial bids for the 700-kilometer long project which will be constructed in 13 packages, a release said.

"With the opening of financial bids, we have achieved a milestone in the implementation process of the project. We shall soon undertake an evaluation of the eligible bids before issuing the work orders. We are expecting to begin the construction within the next two weeks," Radheshyam Mopalwar, vice-chairman and managing director, MSRDC, was quoted as saying in the release.

The other bidders include Ashoka Buildcon, Afcon Infrastructure, Dilip Buildcon, Gayatri Projects, KNR Constructions, Megha Engineering and Infra, NCC, Sadbhav Engineering, PNC Infratech, BSCPL GVPR joint venture, Navayuga Engineering, APCO Infratech, Montecalro-Iron Tingle joint venture and Oriental Structural Engineering, the release said.

The greenfield expressway will connect 10 districts, 26 talukas and 392 villages in the state.

The project will not only connect Nagpur and Mumbai, but also reduce current travel time of 18 hours to eight hours between the two cities.

Construction for the Maharashtra Samruddhi Expressway has been divided into 16 packages and the bid process for the remaining three packages is still under progress.

So far, the state government has acquired 80.25 per cent private and government lands against a total compensation of Rs 4,788 crore, for the project, according to the release.