West Bengal calls bids for Rs 500 cr highway stretch

In West Bengal, financial bids from the short-listed infrastructure companies have been called by the West Bengal Highway Development Corporation (WBHDC) for four-laning of the Dankuni-Chandannagar section of State Highway-13. Infrastructure majors such as Gammon India, HCC, IVRCL and Nagarjuna Construction are in the fray to participate in the project, sources said.

To be developed on a turnkey contract model, the Rs 500-crore project is planned to be commissioned in two phases – Dankuni to Chandannagar (Hooghly district) and Chandannagar to Barojaguli (Nadia district). The highway connects NH-2 at Dankuni to NH-34 at Barajaguli in Nadia district. In the first phase, WBHDC plans to widen some 20-km stretch from Dankuni to Chandannagar on Delhi Road.

MD of the Corporation Manoj K Agarwal said that the interested infrastructure companies can submit the bids till July 12. A pre-bid meeting with them has also been scheduled on July 12.

He said that of the 13 infrastructure firms that participated in the preliminary bidding, 12 have been short-listed. Agarwal added that WBHDC is expecting works to begin for the first phase after August 15, once the panchayat election process in the State gets over.