NHAI Invites Bid For Ghazipur-Manjhi Ghat Greenfield Expressway

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways through National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has invited bids for construction of four lane expressway from Gazipur to Ballia (UP-Bihar state border).

The 132.76-km long greenfield expressway connects Jangipur in Varanasi-Ghazipur to Manjhi Ghat in the Ballia district. The road starts near Hridaypur village on NH-29 in the state of Uttar Pradesh and ends at Bihar Border on NH-19 in Bahoran Tola village on Raghunathpur-Chappra road.

To be built at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore, the project shall be developed in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode in a period of two years. The NHAI has divided the project into four package and invited bids for all of them. Moreover, the NHAI has also floated bids for constructing a bridge on Manjhi Ghat at a cost of Rs 1,100 crore. The selected bidders will have to maintain the Greenfield highway for five years.

The fourth bid package involves constructing a new 17.3 km Buxar Spur connectivity which will connect the expressway to Buxar. The 17-km spur road will pass through Mohammadabad Assembly constituency in Ghazipur and connect to Buxar.

A high-powered Committee of the Road Transport Ministry has approved the EPC mode for the Greenfield expressway. The EPC mode of execution shall ensure implementation of the road project to specified standards with a fair degree of certainty relating to costs and time while transferring the construction risks to the contractor.

The EPC contract document specifies the required design and performance standards and allows the Contractor to design and construct the project using best practices and innovation to optimise on efficiency and economy as compared to the rigidity of the item rate contract that relies on the specific design provided by the government.

The process for land acquisition has been initiated and notification under Section 3(a) of NH Act, 1956 has already been published. Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the nodal agency for the construction of expressways in the state, will acquire the land needed for the Ghazipur-Manjhi Ghat Greenfield highway.

Further, the NHAI will also build a nearly 24-km long link road to connect the highway with the Purvanchal Expressway. With the construction of the two roads, the Purvanchal Expressway, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will be linked to Ballia, UP's easternmost district.

"Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed with NHAI on 20 April, UPEIDA will acquire the land for both the roads," Durgesh Upadhyaya, media advisor to UPEIDA, told Swarajya earlier this year.

The Purvanchal Expressway originates in Lucknow and passes through eight eastern districts - Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur.

In the west, Lucknow is linked to the National Capital Region through the Yamuna and Agra-Lucknow expressways. With the opening of the Purvanchal e-way last year, Uttar Pradesh now has expressway connectivity between its eastern border with Bihar and the western boundary with Delhi.

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