The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is likely to award the contract in another month. The project is entirely funded from NHAI's capital grant. According to official sources, in all 24 companies bought the bidding documents for the project. Out of these, 19 companies submitted their bids and as many as 17 have been technically qualified. Construction of the 17-km bypass is scheduled to be over within 24 months from the commencement of operations. The work is likely to commence in December. The 17-km road bypassing Amravati town in Maharashtra lies on the National Highway Number 6 which connects Dhule, near Mumbai, to Calcutta.

The stretch is part of the East-West transversal. According to officials, there is high traffic density on the route. The construction of a road bypassing Durg town in Madhya Pradeshis also designed to ease traffic on the highway. It is NHAI's first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project. The 18.4-km Durg bypass will be taken up in two phases. The first phase involves construction of a two-lane road. Work on the first phase, which achieved financial closure recently, has already begun. It is likely to be completed in March 2001.

The road will be taken up for four laning in the second phase which is expected to begin in 12 years. An estimated Rs 150 crore will be spend on it. The Rs 70-crore project is being implemented by Nagpur-based Shaktikumar M Sancheti Ltd. The company has put in an equity of Rs 21 crore in the project. Officials pointed out that with this, only stretches near Nagpur and Raipur remained to be tackled for easing traffic congestion on the highway.