Mumbai : As many as 18 construction majors including Reliance Infrastructure and L&T are in the race for the proposed Rs 46,000-crore Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway project, official sources said on Wednesday.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corp (MSRDC), the nodal agency for the project, opened the financial bids submitted by qualified contractors to construct 13 out of 16 packages of the 700-km long NMSCE.

Bids process for the remaining three packages is still under progress and will be announced later, the sources said.

A pet project of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the NMSCE, or Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg project, will connect the state capital directly with a high-speed corridor to the second capital in eastern Maharashtra.

The 18 eligible bidders are: Reliance Infrastructure, Megha Eng & Infra Ltd, NCC Ltd, TPL CENGIZ JV, L&T Ltd, Sadbhav Eng Ltd, PNC Infratech Ltd, Afcon Infrastructure Ltd, BSCPL GVPR Jv, Navayuga Eng Co Ltd, APCO Infratech Pvt Ltd, IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, KNR Constructions Ltd, Dilip Buildcon Ltd, Montecarlo Ltd, Ashoka Buildcon Ltd, Gayatri Projects Ltd and Oriental Structural Eng Pvt Ltd.

“With the opening of the financial bids, we have achieved a milestone in the implementation of the project. We are now ver close to the historic moment of inauguration,” said MSRDC Vice Chairman and Managing Director Radheshyam Mopalwar.

Mopalwar added that the MSRDC will soon undertake an evaluation of the eligible bids before issuing the work orders and it is expected that the construction work for the NMSCE will begin within the next couple of weeks.

Till date, the state government has acquired 80.25 per cent private and government lands against a total compensation of Rs 4,788-crore for this mega-project.

The NMSCE, a Greenfield Project, will zip through 10 districts, 26 sub-districts and 392 villages en route, reducing the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur from the existing 18 to just eight hours.

It will help the state prosper through a holistic process that integrates road connectivity with sustainable rural development through agri-business ecosystem and multi-dimensional sub-projects.

—IANS