The Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway has moved closer to completion after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) floated a Rs 614-crore tender for the remaining 14-km stretch in Tamil Nadu. NHAI officials said the final section is expected to be completed within four months of the contract being awarded.
The 263-km expressway is being developed at an estimated cost of Rs 18,000 crore and is intended to reduce travel time between Chennai and Bengaluru from the current five to seven hours to around three hours. The project was announced nearly 14 years ago, inaugurated in May 2022 and divided into 10 packages for execution.
Around 230 km of the expressway has been completed so far. The 71-km Hoskote-Bethamangala stretch in Karnataka has been completed and opened to traffic, while approximately 90 per cent of the work in Andhra Pradesh and the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border sections has been finished.
Tamil Nadu accounts for 106 km of the project, of which 92 km has been completed. The remaining 14 km is now the subject of the tender floated by NHAI. Officials said the tender follows the completion of the first 11 km of a previously delayed section.
The project had initially been scheduled for completion by March 2024. Its progress was affected by land acquisition problems, delays in shifting electricity lines and drinking water pipelines, and poor performance by contractors on certain stretches.
The 25-km Arakkonam-Kancheepuram section was also delayed because of litigation. NHAI officials said that issue had been resolved and that work on the first 11 km had been completed. The remaining 14 km has now been put out for bidding at an estimated cost of Rs 614 crore.
“Following the completion of the initial 11-km stretch, we have now floated a tender for the remaining 14 km at an estimated cost of Rs 614 crore. A contractor will be selected shortly, and the work is expected to be completed within four months,” NHAI officials said.
The tender marks a fresh implementation milestone for an expressway whose completion has been shaped by land acquisition, utility relocation, litigation and contractor performance. Once the contract is awarded, the stated four-month construction timeline will determine when the final Tamil Nadu section can be brought into service.
The project cost has also increased from the original estimate. Officials said the revised outlay for the relevant works has risen to Rs 10,507 crore. The next formal milestone is the selection of a contractor for the remaining 14-km stretch.
