Patel Wins Bhandara – Gadchiroli Expressway Package BG-01’s Contract

Patel Infrastructure Ltd. on Tuesday was declared as the lowest bidder to construct 156 km Bhandara – Gadchiroli Expressway project’s Package BG-01 after financial bids of four firms were opened.

Bhandara – Gadchiroli Expressway in eastern Maharashtra will be developed as a 4 lane access-controlled highway by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). It will have its northern terminal at Sawarkheda village on the upcoming Nagpur – Gondia Expressway. On the south-side, it will terminate near Gadchiroli Reserve Forest.

MSRDC has so far set into motion only 1 civil package, BG-01, for construction. This 24.705 long package will run in an east-west orientation to connect Sawarkheda village with Koknagad & Gadegaon villages on NH-53.

MSRDC had invited bids for BG-01’s construction in February 2024 with a Rs. 1854.16 crore estimate and 2.5 year construction deadline. Bids were opened in early May to reveal 4 bidders.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
Patel Infra	2188
GR Infra	2260.07
J Kumar	2307
Gawar	2331

MSRDC’s Brief Scope: Sawarkheda – Gadegaon Expressway link from km 0+000 Sawarkheda Tq. Kuhi Dist. Nagpur to km 24+705 Koknagad Tq. Dist. Bhandara (Length: 24.705 km)

Patel’s bid of Rs. 2188 crore was 18% higher than MSRDC’s estimate. This isn’t significantly higher compared to other projects currently being tendered (see list below) where the lowest bids were as high as 45.68% of the estimated cost, but it still isn’t inside the 0-15% sweet spot which is ripe for negotiations to award contracts without re-inviting bids.

So it really remains to be seen if MSRDC will bite the bullet (by revising their budget) to award work OR will scrap the entire process and re-invite bids.

Nagpur – Gondia and Bhandara – Gadchiroli expressways are expected to reduce the travel time from Nagpur and Gadchiroli to about 2 hours from the current 3-4 hour journey.

As shared in the past, tender notices are currently pending for the rest of Bhandara – Gadchiroli Expressway’s construction (see project information page). Looking at the average length of packages in other MSRDC projects, I expect the remaining portion (roughly 131 km) to be broken up into 4 packages.

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
• 179.85 km Jalna – Nanded Expressway
• 182 km Nagpur – Chandrapur Expressway
• 127 km Nagpur – Bhandara – Gondia Expressway

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– TMRG