11 Bidders for Gangtok – Siliguri Expressway’s DPR Consultant Contract

11 firms have submitted bids to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the construction of Gangtok – Siliguri Expressway after Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India (MoRTH) opened technical bids last Tuesday.

This approximately 130 km long 4-6 lane access-controlled highway will connect the states of West Bengal and Sikkim. While the DPR will suggest optimal alignment, per the map released by MoRTH it appears to me it will have its southern terminal at Bagdogra on NH-27 and be built as a mix of greenfield and brownfield routes utilizing portions of the existing national highways NH-10 and NH-717A.

MoRTH had invited tenders for this contract in June 2024 with a 1.5 year and an unknown estimate.

Bidders

• Bloom Companies LLC
• Casta Engineers Pvt. Ltd.
• Consulting Engineers Group Ltd.
• Dhruv Consultancy Services Ltd.
• Highway Engineering Consultant
• LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd.
• Lion Engineering Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
• Monarch Surveyors and Engineering Consultants Ltd.
• Pioneer Infra Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
• Voyants Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
• Yongma Engineering Co., Ltd.

MoRTH’s Brief Scope: Consultancy Services for preparation of Detailed Project Report for Construction of 4/6 laned High Speed Corridor / Expressway between Gangtok – Siliguri passing through the State of Sikkim and West Bengal.

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, this expressway is expected to reduce the travel time between Bagdogra and Gangtok to about one and a half hours from the current four hour journey.

This expressway (Package 8) 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