Surat-Chennai Expressway: PNC, Ashoka Buildcon And Dilip Buildcon Set To Be Awarded Karnataka Portion Of Project

PNC Infratech, Ashoka Buildcon and Dilip Buildcon are set to be awarded three packages of work totalling 177 km pertaining to the Karnataka portion of the 1271 km Chennai-Surat economic corridor.

The economic corridor is among the projects included for tracking under the Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi In Oct 2021. NMP envisages breaking departmental silos and bringing in more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects.

Chennai-Surat economic corridor is under various stages of execution in Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Some of the packages have already reached the bid stage.

The project is envisioned as a combination of 2 partially access-controlled economic corridors (Chennai-Solapur and Solapur-Surat) and will include construction of greenfield stretches and upgrading brownfield sections.

The corridor will pass through Nashik, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Kalaburgi outskirts, Kurnool, Kadappa, and Tirupathi linking the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu.

While the Surat –Solapur Economic Corridor (via Nashik – Ahmednagar ) will be 564 km long, the Solapur Chennai Economic Corridor (via Kurnool) will be 707 km.

The stretches between Surat and Ahmednagar via Nasik and Akkalkot-Mahabubnagar section that links Maharashtra with Telangana will be developed as greenfield alignments. The greenfield portion of the corridor will be close to 520 km. The rest of the corridor will upgrade existing two-lane roads.

The project will be developed on Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) that NHAI has preferred till recently. The project is estimated to cost anywhere between Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000 crores.

Besides creating a third route by road between Chennai and Mumbai, the corridor seeks to reduce the distance roughly by 150 km between the two cities. Currently, heavy vehicles from Chennai and other parts of the State take a detour via Karnataka to reach Mumbai passing through a 1,604-km distance via Bengaluru, Tumukuru, Chitradurga, Davangere, Haveri, Belgaum, Kolhapur, Satara, and Pune. Alternatively, the second route via Nellore, Nalgonda, Hyderabad, Solapur, and Pune runs for 1,614 km.

Tender Progresses In Karnataka

In Karnataka, the NHAI floated tenders for three packages totalling 177 km The alignment in the state will be from Badadal village in Kalaburagi district to Singnodi in Raichur district.

• Package 2: Badabal village till Maradagi S Andola in Kalaburagi District -71km, tenders called for Rs 1,769 crore

• Package 3: Maradgi S Andola till Baswantpur in Yadgir district- 65.5 km tenders called for Rs 1,606 crore (Km 97 to 162.5)

• Package 4: Baswantpur till Singnodi in Raichur district- 40.6 km tenders called for Rs 1,169 crore

NHAI received multiple bidders for at lest two of three packages.

While PNC Infratech emerged as the lowest bidder for package 2 quoting Rs 1575 crores, Ashoka Buildcon out bided others for package 4 by quoting Rs 1079 crores. Dilip Buildcon has reportedly emerged as the lowest bidder for package 3 with a bid amount 1589 crores

A 26 km package from Akkalkot in Maharashtra to Badadal in Karnataka has not been tendered.