CHENNAI (Metro Rail News): On Tuesday, Tata Projects Ltd. (TPL) became the lowest bidder for the civil construction of underground Package UG-06/RT-01 in Chennai Metro’s Line-5
This package involves the construction of twin tunnels and 5 underground stations spanning around 5.8 km between Kolathur and Nathamuni on line 5 that connects Madhavaram and Sholinganallur with 45 stations.
The contract for this package was retendered by CMRL after the original round in August 2021 saw only one bidder, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), with a substantially higher bid than CMRL’s estimate. Consequently, the tender was canceled, and bids were re-invited in December 2021 with an estimated value of Rs. 1580 crore and a completion deadline of 1395 days (approximately 3.8 years).
In the new round, 5 bidders were revealed after the technical bid opening in May, and Tata Projects emerged as the lowest bidder with a bid of Rs. 1445.98 crore, which was below CMRL’s estimate. The other bidders in the fray included Larsen & Toubro (L&T), J Kumar Infraprojects (JKIL), HCC – KPTL JV, and DRA – Soma JV.
The scope of the contract involves the construction of underground stations at Kolathur, Villivakam Sub-urban Station, Srinivasa Nagar, Villivakam bus-terminus, and Nathamuni. It will include entry/exit points, ventilation shafts, plumbing, earthmat, architectural finishes, signages, and twin bored tunnels from Kolathur retrieval shaft to Nathamuni launching shaft and ramps with U-section in corridor-5 of CMRL phase-II project.
With Tata’s bid being below CMRL’s estimate, the contract is expected to be awarded in the coming weeks without a lengthy financial bid evaluation period. This will mark Tata’s third civil contract in Phase 2 of Chennai Metro, with their previous involvements in Line-3’s Package TU01 and Package UG-02. For this project, Tata will be required to deploy at least 4 tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to execute the construction efficiently.
