Shikohabad-Bhogaon Four-Lane: UP Cabinet Clears Rs 328.67 Crore

Uttar Pradesh has put Rs 328.67 crore behind one state highway in Mainpuri district. On 9 October the state cabinet cleared a revised budget to four-lane 31.30 km of the Shikohabad-Bhogaon road and build a 6.56 km bypass around Ghiror. For road contractors in the Agra-Mainpuri-Etawah belt, it’s a mid-size job that lands right as the dry-season earthwork window opens.

What did the UP cabinet approve?

ETV Bharat’s Lucknow desk listed the road among the decisions taken at Friday’s sitting, and several Hindi regional desks carried the same figures. The approval is for a revised cost, so the project has an earlier sanction behind it, but none of the reports gives the earlier number. They also don’t name the executing agency, the contract mode or a start date. One English agency report printed the cost as Rs 28.67 crore. That figure is missing a digit: it works out to about Rs 76 lakh a km, which is resurfacing money, not four-laning plus a new bypass.

What it means for buyers

Start with the rate. Rs 328.67 crore over 37.86 km is about Rs 8.7 crore a km. The Jhansi Link Expressway the same cabinet cleared in August came in near Rs 75 crore a km, because it’s a six-lane greenfield road with structures. This one is far cheaper per km because most of it widens a carriageway that already exists.

That splits the job into two different fleets. The 31.30 km widening runs beside live traffic, so work moves in short stretches: shoulder cutting, side drains and culvert extensions, then the granular layers and bituminous courses. That’s backhoe loaders, 20-tonne class excavators, a motor grader, vibratory and pneumatic rollers and a paver, fed by tippers on short shuttles. The 6.56 km bypass is the real earthmoving: new embankment on flat alluvial ground, built mostly from borrowed fill, with longer hauls and a heavier rolling programme.

Timing matters as much as the money. In western UP the monsoon shuts down earthwork from roughly July to September, so a contractor who mobilises after the tender has a dry window up to about June. Contractors already running road jobs in the area are best placed to bid, since they can shift machines over without paying low-bed transport across the state. Our full kit list for this kind of work is in the road construction equipment guide.

Our take: at roughly Rs 330 crore, this probably doesn’t justify buying a new paving train. For most bidders it’s a utilisation job, with existing graders and rollers kept busy and extra tippers hired by the month. The bypass embankment is where an owner-operator with excavators and compactors in the district can pick up steady sub-contract hours.

FAQ

How much did UP approve for the Shikohabad-Bhogaon road?

Rs 328.67 crore, as a revised budget, approved by the state cabinet on 9 October 2026. A figure of Rs 28.67 crore in one report is a typo.

What exactly will be built?

The 31.30 km stretch from Ghiror to Bhogaon on State Highway 84 becomes four lanes, and a new 6.56 km bypass goes around Ghiror, for 37.86 km in total.

When will work start?

No start date, executing agency or contract mode has been announced. The tender is the next step to watch.

Related on DesiMachines: Chitrakoot Link Expressway approved: Rs 1,008 crore for 15 km

Source: ETV Bharat