HCC-URC JV Lowest Bidder for Bangalore Metro’s RV Rd – HSR Layout

The Hindustan Construction Company Ltd. – URC Construction Pvt Ltd. (HCC – URC) JV has emerged as the lowest bidder for constructing the 6.340 km Package-3 of Bangalore Metro’s new 19.14 km RV Road – Bommasandra line. This entirely elevated section of the 72 km Phase 2 project’s Reach 5 will run primarily on Marenahalli Road, and connect the Green Line’s RV Road Station with the upcoming HSR Layout Station on Hosur Road.

BMRCL invited bids for this package in late-December 2016 with an estimated cost of Rs. 820 crores, and the HCC-URC JV submitted the lowest bid at Rs. 797.29 crores.

Financial bid values submitted by 3 of the lowest technically qualified bidders:

Firm Bid
HCC-URC JV Rs. 797.29 cr
Simplex Rs. 840.60 cr
Soma Rs. 852.17 cr

In addition to a regular viaduct on either ends, the contractor will be responsible for building an approximately 2.5 km long double decker viaduct for vehicles and metro trains with 5 new stations at RV Road, Ragigudda, Jayadeva Hospital, BTM Layout and Central Silk Board:

A detailed PDF document which shows the exact locations of all stations can be viewed here. Note that the viaduct will cross over the Green Line’s viaduct making its piers extremely high – see details/map here.

A massive 5 level interchange station will be constructed at Jayadeva Hospital after demolishing the existing flyover over Bannerghatta Road to allow users to connect to the Phase 2 project’s 21.25 km second new line between Nagawara & Gottigere. In the future, the Central Silk Board Station will become an interchange station with the 17 km Central Silk Board – KR Puram ORR Line which received the Karnataka Government’s approval in March 2017.

Out of all 3 packages on this line (others are P1, P2), this is the most difficult section to construct, and is expected to open up no sooner than 2023 due to its complex scope and various site constraints.

In the coming days, if no extraneous issues arise, then the BMRCL will go on to award the HCC-URC JV with the 72 km Phase 2 project’s 9th major civil contract:

Line Reach Stretch Contractor
Purple 2A Mysore Road –
Pattanagere (3.945 km)
IL&FS
Green 4B Yelechenahalli –
Anjanapura Twp (6.290 km)
NCC
Purple 2B Pattanagere –
Challeghata (4.869 km)
Soma
Green 3C BIEC –
Hessaraghata (3.031 km)
Simplex
Purple 1B Visvesvaraya Ind. Area –
Whitefield (7.218 km)
ITD-ITD Cem
Purple 1A Baiyappanahalli –
Visvesvaraya Ind Area
(8.039 km)
ITD-ITD Cem
Line-3 5(P1) Bommasandra –
Hosa Road (6.418 km)
ITD-ITD Cem
Line-3 5(P2) Hosa Road –
HSR Layout (6.385 km)
ITD-ITD Cem
Line-3 5(P3) RV Road –
HSR Layout (6.340 km)
HCC-URC

Phase 2’s Status

Blue: Under Construction | Black: Contract Awarded | Orange: Financial Bids Opened | Purple: Bids Invited | Grey: Bids Yet to be Invited

Note: Reach 1B (Visvesvaraya Ind. Area – Whitefield) and Reach 5’s Package 1 & 2 (Bommasandra – HSR Layout) were awarded to the ITD-ITD Cem India JV on April 28.

July 1 2017 Update: BMRCL has awarded HCC-URCC with this section’s contract:

For more updates, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

46 Responses to "HCC-URC JV Lowest Bidder for Bangalore Metro’s RV Rd – HSR Layout"

  1. Sampat says:

    Hi TMRG,

    Do you have any information regarding HCC-URC JV performance in previous projects .

    thanks

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Hi, both companies are trying to break into the elevated metro construction business, so they formed a JV and bid together for all 3 packages of this line. HCC is a pan-India company and URC is localized in south India, with each having unique strengths.

      HCC has a solid track record building bridges and tunnels (metro, road, water) around the country. Eg. Bandra Worli Sealink in Mumbai, packages CC-30, CC-34 & CC-66 for Delhi Metro, Package UGC-02 for Mumbai Metro’s Line-3, and so many different tunnels in northern India.

      URC built Bangalore’s Baiyappanahalli Depot and 2 stations in Chennai: (1) St Thomas Mount Station after CCCL’s contract was terminated in 2014, and (2) Chennai Airport Station after Lanco Infratech’s contract was terminated in 2013.

      Like other civil contractors, they’ll hire & poach engineers and managers primarily from elsewhere to execute this.

      Reply
  2. Prasad says:

    Happy to see someone else other than ITD winning

    Reply
  3. Crispus Brightstone says:

    Toughest section of elevated viaduct.. Demolition of flyover in ORR. This got to be a project to see..

    Reply
    • Swaroop says:

      Seriously. Also, I don’t know of any flyover in Bangalore that was demolished, let alone a functional one!

      Reply
      • Vinay Chaitanya D says:

        If Metro is ready by 2023, Very Happy! But tough Days ahead for the Commuters towards Silk Board/ITPL/Electronics City via Jayadeva with the demolition & construction… Need to tolerate the Traffic for something New & Improved commute!

        Reply
  4. Madhu says:

    Hi TMRG

    They have quoted lesser than the price by BMRCL. Hope they dont push deadlines and increase the cost due to this.

    Reply
  5. Sham says:

    On the civil contracts table above, it would be a good idea to list BMRC’s estimations & tender award quotes /amounts, also the date awarded & time period for ready reference in future.

    Reply
  6. Nagaraj Nayak says:

    This line has to be the most difficult project in BMRCL’s history. Best of luck.

    Reply
  7. Arun says:

    Hi TMRG.

    I had look at the detailed PDF file. Apart from Jayadeva, the drawings from BTM bus stand to silk board also looks massive. Are they trying to accommodate future KR Puram to Silk board line ending also in this package? The design seems like that, hence the query.

    Thank you!

    Regards,
    Arun

    Reply
  8. Murli says:

    Just hope GoI/GoK appoints more competent technocrat profiled people to head a org. like BMRC. Cannot afford any more delays

    Reply
  9. Kesavamoorthy says:

    URC worst company in Indian market .. they won’t pay salary for employees , subcontractors .. I don’t know God have save those people s

    Reply
  10. Anil says:

    Hope the contractors and bmrcl stick to the time limit for completion,phase 1 has the unenviable record of completing 1.1 km per year, could you put out the date of start of work and completion for all awarded works

    Reply
    • Sham says:

      There were delays during ph-1 but the delays tend to get magnified & seem to have been too many & too huge because of two reasons :

      (1) Too many announcement of bogus deadlines & repeatedly missing them; &
      (2) Unlike other cities, public expectations for metro in Bangalore are much higher (due to much higher levels of traffic congestion, very large number of road vehicles etc).

      In reality, BMRC has actually done better than all other peer cities (except Delhi). So, your statement that their record of completing 1.1 km per year is incorrect. It is actually 3.03 km/year. I had posted this on an earlier thread & am repeating it here – see below:

      Read as: City; Construction commenced; Period since; Operational km; Average delivery in km/year (as of April-2017).

      Bangalore – Apr, 2007 – 10Y, 0M – 30.3 km == 3.03 km /year
      Chennai – Jun, 2009 – 7Y,10M – 19.9 km == 2.54 km /year
      Mumbai – Feb, 2008 – 9Y, 2M – 11.4 km == 1.24 km /year
      Hyderabad – Apr, 2012 – 5Y, 0M – 0.0 km == NA
      Kolkata – 1984 (opened 1st line) – 28.1 km == 0.87 km /year

      So, despite the delays & challenges, BMRC has actually not done so badly since they are 2nd best after Delhi.

      Reply
      • Rahul says:

        Compare with tier 2 cities. Jaipur, Kochi, Lucknow and you will know the difference.

        Reply
        • Parthasarathy S says:

          IMO, Tier – 2 cities are a different ball game (from what I know in terms of congestion, land prices – and hence overall cost etc.). Hence, comparison can be skewed. Bangalore’s metro implementation, may have been lot better if they had built metro 20 years back – when it was relatively less congested. It is good for these Tier-2 cities that they are getting metro relatively early (and that’s how it should be).

          I would wait for more knowledgeable people to clarify (and correct me if appropriate).

          Reply
        • Sham says:

          Compare like for like. Tier-2 cities do not have the same complexities that metro cities have. It is much more difficult to retrofit & build a metro system in large cities that have very heavy traffic & severe pressure of availability of land, shifting utilities, widening roads etc to build metro. Comparitively, its much easier to build them in tier-2 cities like Kochi, Lucknow, Jaipur etc.

          Reply
      • Parthasarathy S says:

        Yes, It would be lot better for BMRCL and SG to set realistic deadlines (or better even no deadlines). The common man can only hope for honest deadlines and implementation (and it is in short supply anyway). The situation is indeed, quite desperate.

        There’s always room for improvement and they can do better. I personally feel the elevated sections of ph-2 seem to be progressing well and hopefully be completed on time.

        Hopefully, construction sequence in Ph-2 is such that transportation of coaches to completed lines is not an issue and the infra is not wasted in wait for years together.

        Reply
  11. Syed Khaja says:

    Hi, y you are not updating ORR line in ur map? & in your website’s “info” page?

    Reply
  12. peter hook says:

    It is interesting to see how many more comments and replies there are on the Bangalore thread [as opposed to other threads].

    Reply
  13. Shomu says:

    Considering ORR single handedly has one of the biggest sea traffic in bangalore do we have any plans before hand to ensure traffic pressure is well managed?

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Traffic diversion/re-routing plans will be finalized a month or two after BMRCL hands over the contract.

      Reply
  14. Mayank says:

    Hi TMRG,

    Any idea when will BMRCL invite bids for the ORR line?

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Only after its detailed design is prepared and funding up to a certain amount is secured. As of now, I haven’t heard or read of any private funds being committed under BMRCL’s “innovative funding model”.

      Reply
  15. Sharad says:

    While we are cribbing over different cities in India, here is the progress of metro in china

    http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/591f/0877/e58e/cef3/1700/03ba/original/metrochinapdovak.gif?1495205998

    Reply
    • Shashidhar says:

      Amazing . We need to learn from Chinese or worst case Delhi Metro to plan & build our much metro faster than at the current snail pace . 10 Years for 42 KM Phase1 would be slowest anywhere in the world

      Reply
  16. Vinay Chaitanya says:

    @TMRG, any info on what are the alternative routes & traffic diversions are planned during construction?

    Reply
  17. Mahesh says:

    Any further update if they issue Letter to start construction

    Reply
  18. d ravi shankar says:

    The RV Road- Bommasandra line work should be completed in phases.To start with the work from RV road to Silk Board junction should be completed on priority as it would be a boon for commuters travelling from Banashankari, Jayanagar etc towards Electronics City, Sarjapur etc who can change to Buses near Silk Board Junction.
    Similarly, persons working in Vidhana Soudha area and residing near Bommanahalli, HSR layout can make use of the Metro.
    From experience, we can conclude that if the work has to be completed in one go it will not happen before 2027.

    Reply
  19. d ravi shankar says:

    Good to see some buildings getting demolished near Gare Bhavi Palya and the gate of Oxford College in the process of getting demolished.

    Reply
  20. Sudarshan says:

    Gotteger metro station where it’s exact location weather it will teach Nice road of bannareghatta

    Reply
  21. Manjunath says:

    sree Venkateshwara cranes, peenya Bangalore, 25 ton to 400 ton mobile crane ,contact no:9901969692 ,sir please send your mail Id ,

    Reply

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