Patna: The long-awaited project of building an outer ring road around Patna got a significant boost on Friday with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) picking the SP Singla Constructions Private Limited as the construction firm to build a six-land greenfield bridge over the river Ganga.
According to a senior officer, the NHAI has selected the construction company to build 14.52km long bridge, with approach, on the river Ganga from Sherpur in Patna to Dighwara in Saran district after it emerged as the lowest bidder for the project. The financial bid for the project was opened today by the NHAI. The SP Singla Constructions Pvt Limited had quoted ₹3,012.27 crore for the project against ₹3,186 crore of the L&T, ₹3,690 crore of J Kumar and ₹3,877.20 crore of Afcons.
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The six-lane bridge is part of the 140-km long outer ring road, which also passes through Vaishali and Saran districts in the north of Ganga. The under-construction six-lane bridge on the river Ganga from Kachhi Dargah in Patna City to Bidupur in Vaishali will be serve as the other arm of the ring road in the eastern Patna.
The NHAI had floated the tender to select the construction firm of the Sherpur-Dighwara bridge in the last week of December, 2022. Officials of the road construction department (RCD), which has finalised the alignment of outer ring road, said that the NHAI might take another couple of months to complete the formalities for awarding the work. However, the construction might start after the rainy season and the project may take at least four years to complete.
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The state government had approved the outer ring road project in 2017 with an estimated cost of ₹15,000 crore. The Central government has agreed to include the project as part of the special package announced for Bihar by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Officials said that the district authorities have already begun awarding compensation for the land to be acquired for the ring road project. “Unlike other projects, there will not be any delay in construction of the bridge, as almost all required portion of plots have already been acquired,” said a superintending engineer associated with the project.
