Aarvee Wins Chennai Metro Parandur Airport Line’s DPR Consultant Contract

Aarvee Associates Architects Engineers and Consultants Pvt. Ltd. this week was declared as the lowest bidder to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for extending Chennai Metro’s Line-4 from Poonamallee Bypass to Parandur Airport by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL).

Chennai’s 26.1 km Line-4 is currently under construction between Light House and Poonamallee Bypass as part of the 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project. A consultant was appointed in April 2023 by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) to explore the feasibility of extending the line to Sriperumbudur, which I estimate would be anywhere from 15-17 km long.

The state government in late-2023 decided to extend the line all the way to Chennai’s new greenfield airport in Parandur, a distance I estimate to be roughly 40 km from Poonamallee.

CMRL then invited bids for its DPR consultant contract in February 2024 with a 180 day deadline and an unknown estimate. Technical bids were opened in April 2024 to reveal 5 bidders. During evaluation, AECOM India – URS Scott Wilson India JV’s bid was found non-compliant to the tender’s conditions and was disqualified.

Financial Bid Values

Financial bids were opened on May 21. Results:

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
Aarvee Associates	2.05
SYSTRA MVA Consulting	2.14
Balaji Railroad Systems	2.27
Urban Mass Transit Company	3.10

Here’s my purely fictitious take on how its alignment running primarily along NH-48 may look like. There’s a possibility of it also running along the under construction 260 km Bangalore – Chennai Expressway between Sunguvarchatram and Parandur.

I’m not aware of CMRL’s estimate, so can’t provide an assessment on the chances of a contract getting issued. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.

If a contract is awarded in June, then we might get to see a glimpse of the DPR’s first draft, if CMRL chooses to share, in Q1 2025 (January – March).

The DPR will provide a baseline of the line’s length, route composition (underground, elevated & at-grade sections), number of stations, their locations, depot, coach requirement, ridership projection, operational game plan, total cost etc.

In the past CMRL has suggested they will procure trains capable of operating at higher speeds than regular metro trains which usually have a design speed of 90 kmph. Multiple stations are expected within Parandur Airport’s premises where an aerocity with commercial, retail & hotel developments are planned, similar to the ones in Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

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– TMRG