The GSB material rate in official state schedules, for granular sub-base laid and compacted, is ₹1,440 to ₹1,688 a cubic metre in Puducherry’s PSR 2024-25, ₹2,039 in Maharashtra’s SSR 2022-23 and ₹2,538 to ₹2,894 in Uttarakhand’s revised 2024-25 schedule for the Roorkee block. WMM laid by paver runs ₹1,808, ₹2,045 and ₹3,054 a cubic metre in the same three. Maharashtra and Uttarakhand exclude GST. Material is most of every rate, so quarry distance matters more than anything else.

Ask what a cubic metre of granular sub-base costs and the official answer, across the five schedules below, runs from ₹1,319 to ₹3,169. Every one of those figures is correct. They differ by state, by year, by whether GST and royalty sit inside the rate, and by how far the stone has to travel. Read a schedule rate without its notes and you will price a job wrong.

What GSB and WMM are, in one paragraph

Granular sub-base (GSB) is the first engineered layer above the prepared soil, normally 200 to 300 mm thick, and wet mix macadam (WMM) is the crushed-stone base course laid over it, mixed with water in a plant. Both are built to the MoRTH specification, clause 401 for GSB and clause 406 for WMM. Our guide to road construction layers covers the gradings and thicknesses. This post is about what they cost.

GSB material rate in state schedules of rates

Every figure below is the schedule’s own completed rate for GSB laid and compacted, per cubic metre of finished layer, with the item number and the date the schedule took effect.

Schedule (effective date) Item GSB, ₹ per cum Basis
Uttarakhand PWD, Roorkee block 91, revised 2024-25 (30 Oct 2024) 4.01 A, close graded, plant mix, grading I / grading III 2,894 / 2,538 (large project); 3,169 / 2,799 (small project) Excludes GST
Uttarakhand PWD, Champawat block 74-A, revised (23 Mar 2026) 4.01 A, plant mix, grading I / grading III 2,012 / 1,884 (large project) Excludes GST; hill block
Puducherry PSR 2024-25 (14 Aug 2024) 4.1A.1 to 4.1A.3, close graded, plant mix, gradings I to III 1,687.23 / 1,595.89 / 1,440.38 GST treatment of road items not stated
Maharashtra PWD SSR 2022-23 (25 Jul 2022) 3.01 to 3.03, close graded, plant mix, gradings I to III 2,039 Excludes GST; royalty paid separately
Chhattisgarh PWD, NH zone (1 Jun 2021) 4.1 A, plant mix, gradings III to VI 1,478 to 1,561 Excludes GST; includes royalty
Haryana HSR 2021 17.14.1, close graded, plant mix, grading I 1,319 Derived considering 12% GST

Mix-in-place GSB, spread and mixed on the road with a rotavator, is cheaper in most schedules. Maharashtra prices it at ₹1,804 against ₹2,039 for plant mix, and Puducherry at ₹1,575.63 against ₹1,687.23 for grading I.

WMM material rate per cubic metre

Schedule (effective date) Item WMM, ₹ per cum
Uttarakhand, Roorkee block 91, revised 2024-25 4.14 A, laid by paver 3,054 (large project); 3,271 (small project)
Uttarakhand, Champawat block 74-A (23 Mar 2026) 4.14 A, laid by paver 2,833 (large project)
Puducherry PSR 2024-25 4.12A, paver and vibratory roller 1,808.25
Maharashtra SSR 2022-23 3.23, laid by grader or paver 2,045
Chhattisgarh PWD, NH zone (1 Jun 2021) 4.10, paver 1,603
Haryana HSR 2021 17.24 1,315

Puducherry also prices WMM laid by hand at ₹2,164.52 against ₹1,808.25 by paver. Spreading by hand to the same finish is slower and dearer than a machine.

Why the same cubic metre costs so differently

GST is the first difference. Maharashtra states that “rates for completed items are also exclusive of GST”, and Uttarakhand that “civil works cost is excluding GST”. Chhattisgarh’s NH schedule excludes GST and says to add 12% for a realistic project estimate, while Haryana’s rates are already derived considering 12% GST.

Royalty is the second. Maharashtra reimburses royalty on minor minerals separately, at ₹600 a brass (₹211.95 a cubic metre) under its June 2021 gazette, though not for crushed metal, which it treats as a finished product. Chhattisgarh includes royalty in its rates.

Then comes lead, the haul distance built into the rate. Maharashtra’s completed rates include an initial lead of only 50 m, with actual haulage added in the estimate, while Uttarakhand’s Roorkee material sheet builds in 35 km of cartage for GSB material.

Uttarakhand also prints three columns, for large, medium and small projects, and its notes set overheads at 12, 10 or 8% by project cost, plus 10% contractor profit. Finally, year and place: the Haryana and Chhattisgarh schedules date from 2021, and Uttarakhand’s 2026 revision for the Champawat hill block comes out lower than its plains block at Roorkee. Schedule rates are local, so use the one for your district.

How much of the rate is material

Haryana’s HSR 2021 is useful here because it splits each rate:

HSR 2021 item Labour Machinery Material Total, ₹ per cum
17.14.1 GSB, grading I, plant mix 22 269 1,028 1,319
17.24 WMM 26 229 1,059 1,315

Material is about four-fifths of each figure; labour is under 2%. Maharashtra shows the same pattern, with a labour component of only ₹36 inside its ₹2,039 GSB rate. The machinery share pays for the mix plant, the tippers, the motor grader or paver and the vibratory roller, which is where a road contractor’s own fleet earns its keep. Uttarakhand’s Roorkee sheet gives the material alone: close-graded GSB material at a basic ₹1,280 a cubic metre, or ₹1,765.70 with 35 km of cartage.

That is why quarry distance decides margins, the same point our guide to road construction cost per km makes about the bottom layers.

Per tonne or per cubic metre, loose or compacted

None of the five schedules prices GSB or WMM per tonne; they all use the compacted cubic metre. Quarries often sell by the tonne or the truckload, so convert before you compare a quotation with a schedule.

The loose-to-compacted step catches people out. Odisha’s Schedule of Rates 2022 says that “for 1 Cum of compacted granular sub-base, 1.28 Cum of loose quantity will be taken into consideration”. As a worked example, 1 km of road 7 m wide with a 200 mm GSB layer is 1,400 cubic metres compacted, which means about 1,792 cubic metres loose from the quarry. At Maharashtra’s ₹2,039, that layer comes to about ₹28.5 lakh before GST, an illustration only.

Using a schedule rate when you price a job

Departments build their estimates from these schedules, so the schedule rate is the yardstick a bid is compared against. Before you lean on one, check that it is the edition the tender actually uses, read its notes on GST, royalty and lead, and add your real haul distance. Our breakdown of excavation rate per cubic metre shows the same gap between a schedule item and a bare machine rate.

The bottom line

A GSB material rate means little without the schedule it comes from. The official figures checked here run from ₹1,440 to ₹2,894 a cubic metre for plant-mix GSB and ₹1,808 to ₹3,054 for WMM across Puducherry, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand’s Roorkee block, with older Haryana and Chhattisgarh schedules lower still. Material is most of the cost, so price your quarry and your haul first.

For the spreading and compaction itself, compare motor grader models and prices and road rollers, find live road work among tenders and project opportunities, and line up equipment finance for the fleet. The Maharashtra PWD SSR 2022-23 and the Uttarakhand PWD schedule of rates portal are the two sources to open first.

Schedule rates are revised by each state and differ by edition and block, and in how they treat lead, GST and royalty. The figures here are as printed in the schedules named, on the dates shown, and are indicative of what a department estimates, not of a market quote. Confirm the current edition with the department, and confirm material prices with your quarry or contractor before you bid.