Indian firm Maytas Infra has won a $168m (Rs7900m) contract to build the Pune-Sholapur section of National Highway 9 in the state of Maharashtra, India.

The project involves widening a 104.6km section of the highway from two to four lanes, realigning the 4.75km Sholapur bypass, building two road over bridges and seven major bridges, as well as other minor road works.

The project is expected to ease traffic flow on the busy NH-9, which links the city of Pune in the west to Hyderabad in the south.

The contract has been awarded by IL&FS Transportation Networks which was contracted by the National Highways Authority of India to carry out the project on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate & Transfer basis.

The project is expected to finish in 20 months.