9 Bidders for Bangalore – Mangalore Expressway’s DPR Consultant Contract
9 firms have submitted bids to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the construction of Mangaluru – Bengaluru Expressway in Karnataka after Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India (MoRTH) opened technical bids tuesday.
This approximately 300 km long 4-6 lane greenfield access-controlled highway will connect Bangalore and Mangalore via Hassan. While the DPR will suggest optimal alignment and interchanges among other parameters, I imagine it will likely have its eastern terminal on the under construction Bangalore Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR project or NH-948A).
MoRTH had invited tenders for this contract in June 2024 with a 1.5 year and an unknown estimate.
Bidders
- AICONS Engineering Pvt. Ltd.
- Chaitanya Projects Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.
- Consulting Engineers Group Ltd.
- Egis India Consulting Engineers Pvt. Ltd.
- Lion Engineering Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
- L N Malviya Infra Projects Pvt. Ltd.
- Monarch Surveyors and Engineering Consultants Ltd.
- SA Infrastructure Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
- Theme Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd.
MoRTH’s Brief Scope: Consultancy Services for preparation of Detailed Project Report for Construction of 4/6 laned High Speed Corridor/Expressway between Mangaluru-Bengaluru passing through the State of Karnataka.
The bids have now been sent for technical bid evaluation which can take a couple months to complete. When that is done, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders will be opened to reveal who’s the lowest bidder and most likely consultant.
If a contract is awarded in the first half of 2025, we can expect the DPR to be finalized by 2026-end. It will then go through the motions of approval, land acquisition and other clearances – so at this time I see construction work starting no sooner than 2028.
Once operational, Bangalore – Mangalore Expressway is expected to reduce the travel time between both cities to about 3 hours from the current 7 hour journey. Back in August, I created a basic information page for it where I’ll be posting updates. Check it out here: Mangalore – Bangalore Expressway – Information & Status
This expressway (Package 7) is part of a series of 5 new expressways (or “High Speed Corridors” as MoRTH now calls them) proposed for construction in India. Here’s a summary of all – click on the package number to see their bidder list (to be updated as I post):
- Kharagpur – Cuttack – Visakhapatnam Expressway (Packages 1 & 2)
- Jamnagar – Bhavnagar – Bharuch Expressway (Packages 3 & 4)
- Gwalior – Jhansi – Sagar – Lakhnadon Expressway (Packages 5 & 6)
- Bangalore – Mangalore Expressway (Package 7)
- Gangtok – Siliguri Expressway (Package 8)
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? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.
– TMRG
NHAI/MoRTH really needs to standardize the names for what are basically expressways and highways. So far we’ve had high speed corridors, super communication expressways, express highways, economic corridors, etc. Either it’s a regular highway or it’s access controlled and grade separated, making it an expressway.
Totally! It’s painful to see different standards, nomenclatures being used. And this goes for signage too. Other countries in a similar economic bracket or even below have nailed it.