Up to 5 per cent bonus for completing construction of Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway before deadline

A bonus of up to 5 per cent of total contract cost will be offered to firms that will complete the construction of 701-km-long Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway before the scheduled deadline. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) executing the project has decided to incentivise early completion of the Expressway also known as Samruddhi corridor.

The MSRDC expects that such bonuses is necessary and will help in avoiding escalation of construction cost due to delay in construction of the project.

Radheshyam Mopalwar, Managing Director, MSRDC, said, "Early completion is also beneficial for the people who are going to use it, and It is necessary incentive for avoiding time and cost overruns. Such type of bonuses is also given by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)."

The NHAI had in the past has announced about bonus up to 10 per cent for completing the civil construction before the deadline.

Infact, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), a public sector company has also made provisions to give special bonus of up to 10 per cent to the company that will construct 14-km-long Zojila tunnel between Kashmir and Ladakh, in case the construction is completed in six years instead of the anticipation of seven years.

Similarly, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is offering such incentives in form of maximum five per cent bonus for contractors who will complete civil construction of proposed Metro corridors in Mumbai Metropolitan Region before the scheduled deadline.

In case of Mumbai Nagpur Expressway, MSRDC has said that in event that the project completion date occurs prior to the scheduled completion date, the contractor shall be entitled to receive a payment of bonus but subject to a maximum of 5 per cent of the contract price.

The MSRDC has divided the civil construction of the 701-km-long Expressway in 16 packages and separate contractor will be appointed for each package to ensure speedy construction, and will be having a deadline of around 24 months.

The overall construction cost of the project is Rs 46,000 crore of which around Rs 30,000 crore is civil construction cost and remaining is for land acquisition and utility shifting.

Currently, close to 60 per cent of the required land has been acquired out of the total around 10,000 hectares of land required for the construction of Expressway. The construction is expected to start by the end of this year.

The 701-km-long Mumbai Nagpur Expressway is touted to be one of the longest Expressway in South Asia and will have six lanes with an additional two service roads on each side.

The entire Expressway is expected to bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur to 10 hours from the current 17-18 hours.