The work to make the 75.54 km Ludhiana-Bathinda national highway six-lane has been allotted to Ram Kumar contractor and Ceigall India Ltd. While package 1 of the 30.3 km long greenfield expressway has been awarded to Ram Kumar contractor, the second part, including a 45.243-km stretch on the NH-754-AD, was allotted to Ceigall India Ltd. Around 13 construction companies had shown interest in undertaking work on the six-lane access-controlled highway linking Ballowal village on the Delhi-Amritsar expressway with Rampura Phul on the Amritsar-Bathinda expressway. In January last, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) floated tenders for its construction with a two-year deadline. With this, the drive from Ludhiana to Bathinda will become smoother and quicker as the project entails six-laning the 75.543 km long national highway 754-AD at Rs 1,716.17 crore. Under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase 1, the Ludhiana-Ajmer economic corridor (EC-8) part will be completed in 24 months. The bidders included Ram Kumar contractor, Ceigall India, CDS Infra Projects, Agroh Infrastructure Developers, Chetak Enterprises, HG Infra Engineering, Krishna Constructions, Megha Engineering, and Infrastructures, Prakash Asphalt and Toll Highways, GR Infraprojects, PNC Infratech, Ravi Infrabuild Projects and VRC Constructions. A senior NHAI officer told the media that following the technical evaluation of the bids obtained for both packages, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders were opened to permit the work to the lowest bidder. The acquisition of 525.19 hectares of land was nearly complete, and the few pending awards will be announced soon. She said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has undertaken the widening and strengthening of the highway in two parts under the hybrid annuity model (HAM) mode. The first component of the NH-754-AD will include 30.3 km, while the second part will run into a 45.243 km stretch. For package 1, while 13 bids were received on the project’s southern end, 12 bidders have shown interest for package 2 on the northern end. For the first stretch, while 201.67 hectares are acquired, the second portion will need 323.52 hectares of land spread across 36 villages in various parts of the district. The civil cost of the project has been anticipated at Rs 1,596.3 crore — Rs 639.07 crore for the first part and Rs 957.23 crore for the second part — while Rs 119.87 crore is kept for the land acquisition. The 30.3 km long first package of the six-lane access-controlled greenfield highway will start from the junction with the Amritsar-Bathinda NH-754-A near Tallewal village at Rampura Phul in Bathinda. The second 45.243 km stretch from the junction with the Moga-Barnala NH-703 will connect with the Delhi-Katra expressway (NE-5) at Ballowal village in Ludhiana. Image Source Also read: Gadkari inaugurates 10 NH projects of 292 km in Solapur