Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has invited global bids for civil construction of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ dream project, the Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway, connecting the financial capital with Mr Fadnavis’ hometown.
MSRDC on Monday floated the request for qualification (RFQ), wherein the corporation has divided the construction into 16 packages, which means that 16 different contractors would be appointed for the construction of the 702-km-long expressway, pegged at Rs 46,000 crore. However, the cost of civil construction of the project is around Rs 25,000 crore
Radheshyam Moplawar, managing director, MSRDC, said, “We have floated the RFQ for the civil construction of the project, and we expect several national and global players to bid for the project. Currently, we have around 30 per cent of the required land in our hands, for which we have approval from the parties concerned that have agreed to give their land for the construction of the expressway.”
Mr Mopalwar, added, “Out of the 30 per cent of the land in our hands, 20 per cent is from private parties, and 10 per cent is forest and government land. Once we have 60 per cent of land in our hands, we would shortlist the bidders, and once we have 80 per cent of land in our hands, we will issue work orders for the construction.”
The proposed expressway would be completed in three years. The state government requires around 20,000 hectares of land for it.
Out of this 20,000 hectares, around 84 per cent of the land between Bhiwandi and Nagpur is agricultural land, 13 per cent fallow land and 1.92 per cent forestland. The corridor will pass through 350 villages from 27 talukas, where non-cultivable landowners will get a developed plot of 25 per cent of the area given up by them. Those with irrigated or cultivable land would be given 30 per cent of the land given up. The expressway is expected to boost the rural economy of the state.
MSRDC is currently in the process of preparing the detailed project report (DPR) for the project. The deadline for the E-way is 2019. It is expected to reduce the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur to 10 hours from the current 15-17 hours.
