Jalna – Nanded Expressway: APCO, MCL, PNC & RSIIL Win Contracts
Four civil engineering firms on Tuesday were declared as the lowest bidders for 6 construction contracts of the 179.85 km Jalna – Nanded Expressway project.
The winners list includes APCO Infratech Pvt. Ltd., Montecarlo Ltd. (MCL), PNC Infratech, and Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd. (RSIIL).
Jalna – Nanded Expressway will be developed as a 6 lane access-controlled highway project by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and have its northern terminal at the 701 km Mumbai – Nagpur Expressway (Samruddhi Mahamarg or ME-2).
The expressway has been designed with a 120 kmph speed limit. It will be developed under 6 packages (JNE-1, JNE-2, JNE-3, JNE-4, JNE-5 & JNE-6) and is expected to reduce the travel time between Nanded and Mumbai to 6 hours from 11 hours.
MSRDC had invited RfQ applications for its civil construction in April 2023 and opened bids in June 2023 to reveal 28 firms had submitted applications. 18 of those firms qualified to the next RfP round in December 2023.
MSRDC then invited price bids from those 18 firms in January 2024 with a construction deadline of 900 days. In April 2024, they received 23 bids from 10 firms.
Financial Bid Values
Here are the financial bid values for each package. APCO Infratech & Montecarlo each won 2 packages, while PNC Infratech and Roadway Solutions each won 1 package.
Package JNE-1
- Length: 36.09 km
- Chainage: Panshendra KM (-) 0+090 to Sarwadi (Ner) KM 36+000
- Estimated Cost: Rs. 1949.67 crore
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| APCO | 2649 |
| NCC | 2740 |
| Afcons | 2798 |
Package JNE-2
- Length: 30.55 km
- Chainage: KM 36+000 Sarwadi (Ner) in Tq. & Dist. Jalna to KM 66+550 Patoda Kh. in Tq. Mantha & Dist. Jalna
- Estimated Cost: Rs. 1870.52 crore
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| APCO | 2522 |
| Montecarlo | 2589 |
| NCC | 2639 |
| IRCON | 2677 |
Package JNE-3
- Length: 32.44 km
- Chainage: 66.55 to 98.99
- Estimated Cost: Rs. 1904.33 crore
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| Montecarlo | 2562 |
| NCC | 2678 |
| APCO | 2723 |
Package JNE-4
- Length: 28.85 km
- Chainage: 98.99 to 127.84
- Estimated Cost: Rs. 1807.70 crore
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| PNC | 2508 |
| Oriental | 2599.72 |
| J Kumar | 2634 |
| Montecarlo | 2688 |
Package JNE-5
- Length: 32.19 km
- Chainage: 127.84 to 160.03
- Estimated Cost: Rs. 1935.95 crore
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| Montecarlo | 2663 |
| Roadway Solutions | 2753 |
| PNC | 2788 |
| IRCON | 2857 |
Package JNE-6
- Length: 19.82 + 4.48 km (spur)
- Chainage: 160.03 to 179.85 (package includes road from Hingole Gate to Chhatrapati Chowk)
- Estimated Cost: Rs. 1974.19 crore
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| Roadway Solutions | 2560.60 |
| GRIL | 2743.07 |
| Montecarlo | 2785 |
| APCO | 2801 |
| IRCON | 2856 |
The lowest bid for each package’s construction was significantly higher than MSRDC’s estimate, so we’ve reached a deadlock which can take months to resolve. For instance – in Package JNE-1, APCO’s bid of Rs. 2649 crore was 35.87% higher than MSRDC’s estimate. Similarly in Package JNE-2, APCO’s bid of Rs. 2522 crore was 34.86 % higher.
There’s no room for negotiations without altering scope or quality. It remains to be seen if MSRDC will bite the bullet (by revising their budget) and award contracts to get work started OR will scrap the entire process and re-invite bids.
Maharashtra’s government plans to develop a 5000 km expressway network in the state. Jalna – Nanded Expressway is displayed by number 12 below:
MSRDC on Tuesday also opened bids for 5 other expressway projects – and things don’t look too bright for them either. Check out each link below for a list of winners:
- 136.80 km Pune Ring Road
- 126 km Virar – Alibaug Multi-Modal Corridor (VAMMC) around Mumbai
- 127 km Nagpur – Gondia Expressway
- 182 km Nagpur – Chandrapur Expressway
- 156 km Bhandara – Gachiroli Expressway’s Package BG-01
For more updates, check out the Expressway section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.
– TMRG
The difference is quite high, we rarely get to see these, especially on highway projects.
What’s your take on this Tmrg?
Okay, so the new form of LOOT is now here! Rather than billing Rs 25-30 per km for a 6 lane expressway (which in itself is a premium amount), these road construction ‘companies’ have re-rated this to Rs 60-80 per km!! WOW! Let’s hope and pray that this evil bug doesn’t bite NHAI going forward.
Numbers are alarming, Indian government’s annual ‘CAPEX’ budget is now at Rs 11 Lakh crores. If 50% (hopefully not more) of this is squandered by inflated bids (which can be divided between politicians and colluding corporates), then nearly Rs 5 Lakh crores ($60 billion) can be generated as commission every year! And, of course, poor public will be fooled by showing drone videos of under-construction ‘marvels‘ on social-media, and will be told that their beloved country will soon turn into a ‘golden-bird’!
It’s a matter of SHAME & DISGUST that a poor country is conned in this manner. It’s certainly not a bad idea if at least 50% of government’s resources after paying for salaries (aka revenue expenditure) is distributed to the bottom 50% of masses as cash-transfers rather than being stolen as bribe on ‘development’ projects. You see what Rs 5 Lakh crores can achieve, government can transfer Rs 50,000 every year to 10 crore poor families (empowering 50 crore people – presuming family size of 5). A much better than a sickening proposition of putting this amount in the bank account of a contractor (and his political master).
At the moment this is the ONLY way to build infrastructure. By the way, that pocketing of money happens at state level mostly. It is slowly getting eradicated at central level by more and more digitization.