Twelve infrastructure companies have evinced interest in the construction of Purvanchal Expressway, the longest proposed expressway project in India.

The 12 companies that have placed technical bids for the project are Reliance Infratech, Larsen & Toubro, PNC Infratech, NCC, BSCPL Infrastructure, Sadbhav Engineering, Oriental Structural Engineers, Ashoka Buildcon, KNR Constructions, Apco Infratech, Gayatri Projects and Afcons Infrastructure.

These firms will place financial bids in June 2018 and the selected bidders are expected to start work in July 2018 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the project.

The 341 km six-lane (expandable to eight lanes) access-controlled expressway from Lucknow to Ghazipur will be implemented on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.

The highway will connect predominantly agricultural districts to Delhi via 165 km Agra-Greater Noida Yamuna Expressway and 302 km Agra-Lucknow Expressway. The total cost of the project is Rs 23,349 crore of which Rs 11,800 crore is for construction and Rs 6,500 crore is the cost of the land.

The authorities have acquired 92 percent of the land required for the expressway. Also, a consortium of scheduled commercial banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) has agreed to lend Rs 8,500 crore for the project.

For this, the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) has invited expression of interest (EOI) for part-financing of the civil construction work of the project.

UPEIDA has invited EoIs from eligible domestic as well as international financial institutions as well as equity and pension funds and other funding agencies for providing alternative financial resources in the form of loan, investment or other forms of infrastructure-funding to the extent of Rs 12,000 crore.

The money will be repayable over 12 years period after a moratorium during construction period of three years (total period of 15 years). The project has been divided into eight packages.