MMRC to start token work on next phase soon

“Work on the tunneling will not begin now, but we will start work on the car depot early next month. We have appointed a contractor who will work on constructing the boundary wall, leveling of the plot, shifting of utilities and so on. The state government had given us advance possession of the land,” said UPS Madan, an MMRC director and metropolitan commissioner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

He added that the work order for the contract, worth Rs 150 crore, has already been awarded to RK Madhani, a civic contractor.

For the tunneling and station construction contracts, the MMRC had, last month, shortlisted nine consortia after screening pre-qualification bids. However, it is yet to hand over the documents for financial bidding to the shortlisted consortia.

Madan said the Requests for Proposals are yet to be issued as the metro rail corporation is awaiting the approval of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is financing more than half the project cost for the shortlist. Despite initiating the tendering for tunnels and stations in September last year, the entire bidding process was delayed as the state government sat on a crucial file. The Metro corporation had to be reconstituted as a joint venture between the Union and state government from being a wholly-owned unit of the latter. The file for the reconstitution was sent to the Congress-NCP state government in October last year, but was cleared only in July this year.

Soon after the first meeting of the new board was held, the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan held a bhoomipujan for the project in August, promising to start work soon and projecting the Metro project as an achievement of the Congress party.

The Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro will be Mumbai’s first fully-underground Metro line running for 33.5 kilometres and having 26 stations built underground. The Metro corridor, touted to be one of the city’s most expensive infrastructure works, will connect prime business and industrial districts such as Nariman Point, Bandra Kurla Complex, Andheri MIDC and SEEPZ, and the Mumbai airport, passing through some narrow and congested areas.

manasi.phadke@expressindia.com