Jeypore-Malkangiri railway line tender in Odisha

East Coast Railway has invited bids on two design-and-build packages of the Jeypore-Malkangiri new broad gauge line in southern Odisha, worth ₹2,584.61 crore together, closing 18 September and 16 October 2026.

The two packages run back to back along the same alignment. Phase II covers km 41.50 to km 69.60 including Nunkhari station, at ₹1,594.98 crore. Phase III picks up at km 69.60 and runs to km 125.18, at ₹989.63 crore. Together they are about 84 km of new railway through the Koraput and Malkangiri districts.

What the packages include

Both are full EPC scopes rather than civil-only lots. The contractor designs and builds earthwork in formation, embankment and cutting, blanketing, side and catch water drains, minor and major bridges, road under bridges, protection works and permanent way track laying with its own materials except the rails. Station buildings, platforms, service and residential buildings, water supply and electrification sit inside the same contract, along with 25 kV overhead equipment.

Phase II adds tunnels and viaducts. The document set lists eleven tunnel drawings and three viaducts, which tells you the terrain between km 41.50 and km 69.60 is the harder half of the two.

Terrain is the real risk

Malkangiri is hill and forest country with a long, heavy monsoon. Cut and fill quantities are large, haul roads have to be built before the railway earthwork can start, and the working season is genuinely short. Anyone pricing this should look at the geotechnical reports in the document set before assuming standard productivity rates, because the ground here is not the Odisha coastal plain.

Access is the other constraint. Some of this alignment sits in areas where mobilising and holding a labour camp and a plant yard is harder than the drawings suggest.

Who should look at this

Earnest money is ₹31,89,95,900 on Phase II and ₹19,79,25,900 on Phase III, both exactly two per cent of the estimate, which is the standard railway EPC setting. There is no tender fee on either. Bid validity and the rest of the conditions are in the NIT.

These are railway EPC contracts, so the bidders are firms with formation and track experience and the balance sheet to carry two per cent bid security. For machine owners the interest is different and more immediate: a new line of this length is one of the largest earthmoving demands to open in southern Odisha, and it runs for years rather than one season.

Plant a new railway line runs

Formation work dominates the early years. Excavators cut through the hill sections and load, tippers do long hauls on rough temporary roads, and dozers spread and push fill. Motor graders and soil compactors build the formation to the tolerances railway work demands, which are tighter than road embankment. Blanketing adds a further layer of hauling and compaction on top of that.

Structures bring cranes for girder placement across the minor and major bridges and the viaducts, with piling rigs on the bridge foundations. The tunnel sections need their own drilling and mucking equipment. Concrete demand is continuous across the whole alignment, so batching capacity and transit mixers are planned around the monsoon rather than the calendar.

Key facts

How to apply

1. Open the official portal: Indian Railways IREPS.
2. Search by tender ID EPC-CECONIIVSKP2026018 for Phase II or EPC-CECONIIVSKP2026023 for Phase III, under East Coast Railway Construction.
3. Register on IREPS and keep a valid Class III digital signature certificate ready.
4. Download the RFP, the EPC agreement and the geotechnical reports. Both packages have been amended, so check the corrigenda before you price.
5. Submit your bid online before 18 September 2026 for Phase II or 16 October 2026 for Phase III.

More on DesiMachines

Other Odisha work taking bids: the Talcher-Bimalagarh rail link tender and the NH-326 widening package tender. If new railway formation is your line, the Dhar railway line tender in Madhya Pradesh is a comparable pair of packages. There are more live tenders in Odisha, and all live tenders are listed by closing date.

If you hire plant to railway contractors, our excavator, motor grader and crane pages cover the machines this work depends on, and equipment finance sets out the loan and lease options.

FAQ

Tender details are summarised for convenience and may change. Always verify the latest dates, terms and documents on the official tendering portal before bidding. DesiMachines is not responsible for changes made by the issuing authority.