Mumbai: MSRDC Acquires 360 Ha For Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor, Aiming For Completion By 2030

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has acquired 360 Ha of land for the proposed Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor (VAMMC). The expressway will consist of 8 to 14 lanes and connect three districts of Raigad, Thane and Palghar.

“We need to acquire a total of 1,000 Ha of land for the project and have already acquired 360 Ha. The process to acquire remaining land is on and we hope to finish the same at the earliest,” Joint Managing Director of MSRDC, Kailas Jadhav said.

On asked whether the land will be acquired as per land pooling method adopted for the Hinduhrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, the official replied in the negative and said the land will be purchased and the compensation will be paid as per the provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act of 2015.

To a query about the deadline of completion of the project, Jadhav said, "We have submitted a proposal regarding floating of the bonds for the project with the state government. We will commence the further process once the proposal is approved."

The greenfield expressway was originally planned in 2011 by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), but in September 2020 a deal was signed to hand over the construction to MSRDC, which has received environmental clearance for the 18-km stretch between Chirner and Balvali in June 2021. Approximately 5,000 trees are likely to be cut for the project and 221 hectare of forest land is to be diverted.

The project with an estimated cost of Rs 55,000 crore is likely to be completed by 2030. The access-controlled road will have eight to 14 lanes with a lane width of 3.75mt. Meanwhile, 14 civil engineering firms submitted a total of 33 bids to construct 96.47 km Phase 1 of the 126-km expressway after technical bids were opened in May, 2024.

MSRDC had invited RFQ applications for its civil construction in April 2023 and opened bids in June 2023 to reveal that 28 firms had submitted applications. Of these, 18 firms qualified for the next RFP round in December 2023. MSRDC then invited price bids from those 18 firms in January 2024 with a construction deadline of 900 days.

Package (Length) & Chainage:

MMC-1 (8.27 km): 0.065 to 8.335; MMC-2 (12.39 km): 8.335 to 20.720; MMC-3 (5.28 km): 20.720 to 26.000; MMC-4 (3.26 km): 26.000 to 29.260; MMC-5 (11.5 km): 29.620 to 40.760; MMC-6 (12.83 km): 40.760 to 53.592; MMC-7 (8.61 km): 53.592 to 62.200; MMC-8 (7.97 km): 62.200 to 70.167; MMC-9 (7.23 km): 70.167 to 77.400; MMC-10 (11.22 km): 77.400 to 88.620; MMC-11 (7.85 km): 88.620 to 96.470.

Bidders:

Afcons Infrastructure: MMC-4; APCO Infratech: MMC-2; BSCPL Infrastructure: MMC-10 & MMC-11; Gawar Construction: MMC-11; GR Infraprojects: MMC-3 & MMC-4; IRCON International Ltd: MMC-6, MMC-7 & MMC-8; J Kumar Infraprojects: MMC-8, MMC-10 & MMC-11; Larsen & Toubro: MMC-4, MMC-5, MMC-6 & MMC-7; Megha Engineering and Infrastructures: MMC-1, MMC-3 & MMC-9; Montecarlo: MMC-6 & MMC-7; Navayuga Engineering Company: MMC-1, MMC-5 & MMC-9; Oriental Structural Engineers: MMC-2, MMC-3 & MMC-8; PNC Infratech: MMC-5; Welspun Enterprises: MMC-2, MMC-3, MMC-10 & MMC-11.