Bids Invited for Nepal Border – Haldia Port Expressway’s DPR

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) this week invited tenders to prepare a Detailed Project Report for an expressway linking Raxual in Bihar, on the India-Nepal border, with Haldia Port in West Bengal.

Haldia port currently handles most of Nepal’s trade, and this roughly 650 km expressway is proposed with a primary goal to improve the efficiency of freight movement and boost exports from the surrounding region.

• Completion Period / Deadline: 300 days
• Submission Deadline: 02-Jun-2021 at 11:00 AM
• Technical Bid Opening: 03-Jun-2021 at 11:30 AM

Brief Scope: Proposals are hereby invited from eligible Consultants for preparation of Detailed Project Report of Consultancy Services for preparation of DPR for Greenfield Expressway from Raxaul to Haldia Port.

This expressway’s alignment will see it diagonally cut through Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Along the way, it will pass by Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Asansol – Durgapur in West Bengal. An accurate image of its alignment, design and civil features will appear when the DPR’s first draft is developed by mid-2022.

If and when constructed, a portion of this expressway will function as the eastern section for linking Delhi – Kolkata via a series of access-controlled expressways, with the possibility of a spur getting developed towards Howrah and Kolkata city.

West Bengal has two other expressway projects in the works for over a decade:

• 270 km ‘North-South Corridor’ expressway linking Morgram in Murshidabad district with Mechogram in Purba Medinipur district. This expressway will skirt around Kolkata and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has in the past shown interest to finance a portion of it.
• 4 lane expressway linking Haldia to Kolkata Airport (via Roychak & Kukrahati). Haldia Development Authority states that land acquisition for it “is nearing completion“.

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– TMRG