SMS & Kalyan Win Durg – Raipur – Arang Expressway’s Work

SMS Ltd – Mehrotra Buildcon Pvt Ltd JV and Kalyan Toll Infrastructure Ltd – Shelke Constructions Pvt Ltd JV on Monday emerged as the lowest bidders to construct the 92.23 km Durg – Raipur – Arang Expressway (NH53) project.

This 6 lane access-controlled greenfield highway by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Chhattisgarh is being developed through 2 civil packages, 44.5 km Package A and 47.73 km Package B, under Bharatmala Pariyojana program.

The project’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) was prepared by Transys Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Its alignment will make it serve as a bypass around Raipur to connect Naya Raipur on the south side.

NHAI invited tenders for both packages’ contracts in June 2022 with a 730 day (2 year) deadline, and Rs. 968.57 crore and Rs. 1033.47 crore estimates respectively. Technical bids were opened in August to reveal 18 firms had submitted a total of 32 bids.

Package A’s Financial Bid Values (Lowest 5)

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
SMSL – MBPL JV	789.87
Ashoka Buildcon Ltd.	794.42
Bharat Vanijya Eastern Pvt. Ltd.	862
DCC Infra Projects Ltd.	868.66
PNC Infratech Ltd.	882

Package A’s Scope: Construction of 6-Lane Durg Raipur Arang Bypass section of NH-53 from design ch. 0.000 (Vill. Tendesara) to design ch. 44.500 (Vill. Parsada) in the State of Chhattisgarh on EPC Mode under Bharatmala

Package B’s Financial Bid Values (Lowest 5)

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
Kalyan Toll – Shelke Constructions	680.02
SMSL – Arcons JV	842.79
Ashoka Buildcon Ltd.	852
RKD Construction Pvt. Ltd.	916.56
DCC Infra Projects Ltd.	926.26

Package B’s Scope: Construction of 6-Lane Durg Raipur Arang Bypass section of NH53 from design ch. 44.500 (Vill. Parsada) to design ch. 92.230 (Vill. Paragaon) in the State of Chhattisgarh on EPC Mode under Bharatmala

Bids by SMSL-MBPL JV and Kalyan-Shelke JV were way below NHAI’s estimates, so a contract should be awarded by year-end without a long financial bid evaluation period.

In Package B, the difference with NHAI’s estimate is 34.21% and with L2 (SMSL – Arcons JV) it’s 19.32%, so I’m curious to see how Kalyan-Shelke JV’s business development team calculated their bid keeping profit and quality in mind.

Anyhow, this project forms a small part of the larger 1854 km Mumbai – Kolkata Economic Corridor project. Details on Durg – Arang Expressway along with a list of all packages and their status can be viewed here.

For more updates, check out the Expressway section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? See how you can get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG