CM Fadnavis nod for Korean firms to bid for E-way

Mumbai: CM Devendra Fadnavis has made it clear that South Korean private firms too can bid for the construction of the 700 km - long Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, notwithstanding the fact that the country recently offered to contribute to its funding, according to MSRDC officials.

During his recent trip to South Korea, Mr Fadnavis had approached that country’s government seeking investment for the project and also signed a MoU seeking assistance in several other infrastructure-development projects. The total cost of the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway project is Rs 46,000 crore, of which Rs 35,000 crore will come from the South Korean government by way of a loan. “Based on the recommendation sent by the union government, the South Korean government has agreed to provide a loan of Rs 35,000 crore for the project to the state government. Besides, we are also in talks with Indian banks for providing us soft loan so that the project doesn’t get hampered. In addition to this, the CM has said that Korean companies can also take part in the bidding process for construction of Samruddhi,” said Bhushan Gagrani, Director of MSRDC.

According to the MSRDC, the process of RFQ (Request for Qualification) has started, through which documents and other details of the bidders will be scrutinised. Once the RFP is done, RFP (Request For Proposal) will begin wherein the companies who were qualified will be given time to study the project.