Simplex Lowest Bidder for B’lore Metro’s Gottigere-Swagath Rd Section
Simplex Infrastructures Ltd. has emerged as the lowest bidder for constructing the 7.501 km Gottigere – Swagath Road Cross section of Bangalore Metro’s 21.42 km Gottigere – Nagawara Line-4 after officials from the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) recently opened the financial bids submitted by different technically qualified infrastructure firms.
This entirely elevated section of the 73.95 km Phase 2 project’s Reach-6 with 6 new stations will be built on Bannerghatta Road and along the way form a massive 5-level interchange with the upcoming 19.14 km RV Road – Bommasandra Line-3 (Reach-5) at Jayadeva Hospital which will be built by the HCC – URCC JV.
The BMRCL invited bids for this package, officially referred to as Reach 6-CC-01, in March 2017 with an estimated cost of Rs 575.52 crore and would like civil work to be completed within 27 months. At this time it isn’t known which other firms qualified to the financial bidding stage and what their bid values were, but apparently Simplex’s bid was only 0.5% above BMRCL’s estimated price. This post will be updated whenever more information becomes available.
The 5 new stations included in this package’s scope are located at Gottigere, Hulimavu, IIM-Bangalore, JP Nagar 4th Phase and Swagath Road Cross –
Gottigere – Swagath Road Cross section – view Bangalore Metro Phase 2 map & info
Note – Except for the Jayadeva Station, the locations of all other stations marked above are speculative as the BMRCL hasn’t released this section’s detailed alignment.
If no issues arise, then in the coming days the BMRCL will go on to award Simplex Infrastructures with the 73.95 km Phase 2 project’s 10th major civil contract – see list of contractors here. This will become Simplex’s 2nd project in the city after the 3.031 km BIEC extension of the Green Line for which test piling work commenced in June.
Phase 2’s Status
On the civil side of things, contractors for 2 main civil infra components still have to be assigned:
• 13.92 km underground section of Line-4 – BMRCL invited bids for 4 packages (tunnels & stations) in July 2017. Contractors are expected to be finalized in the 1st half of 2018.
• New Depots – Bids are yet to invited for the construction of new depots at Challeghatta (Purple Line), Thataguni (Green Line), Hebbagodi (Line-3), Kothanur (Line-4) & Nagawara (Line-4, stabling yard only).
On the system side of things, BMRCL in mid-July invited bids for the procurement of head hardened rails (tracks). Bids for other critical systems such as the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system, telecommunication system, escalators, electrical system, signalling & train control system, and rolling stock are yet to be invited.
Blue: Under Construction| Black: Contract Awarded | Orange: Financial Bids Opened | Purple: Bids Invited
September 8 Update – Work order (LOA) has been issued to Simplex Infra –
For more updates, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
TMRG has been great for giving the latest inputs regarding all the national metro rail projects
thanks a lot
Glad you like this space. Cheers 🙂
Thanks for the update TMRG! Gottigere station is the real concern now, waiting for the exact alignment from BMRCL….
I’ve got my eyes and ears perpetually opened. Hopefully they release it soon. That’ll answer a lot of questions I receive in older posts and via email.
I thought some where it was mentioned that the acquisition and compensation has already been pad for the Jayadeva to Gotigere section. Also i have seen the markings for road widening is already done with green color. Can we use these marking to hazard a guess for the station location?
Yes, As per the present map Gottigere station location is at Kalena Agrahara around 1.5 km away from Gottigere.This will be a biggest blunder from BMRCL if they construct station there instead of Gottigere, because Gottigere is a perfect location from all directions and nearer to Nice corridor.
On the Bommasandra to RV Road line, a part has been marked under construction. Do we know if actual construction work has started?
Hi, check out BMRCL’s latest Aug newsletter – ITD has completed test piling for Package-1 (Bommasandra to Hosa Road) and Package-2 (Hosa Road – HSR Layout).
ITD Cem’s workers, construction machinery and demolition work can be seen at many places along the line’s alignment. For all practical purposes, those 2 sections have progressed beyond the ‘Contract Award’ stage.
Great!! Can at least expect the line from bommasandra to silk board to be completed as per schedule.
Keep your fingers crossed on actual land acquisition. From the looks of it, there are around 100 shops and houses to be demolished including some 4-5 story ones to start any meaningful construction on this 13 KM stretch. They have demolished quite a few but I reckon that 60-70% demolition is still pending and will take months. Hopefully, we don’t see any mass protests against that and metro will complete as per schedule.
Thanks Team,
Good work really appreciated.
Looks like L & T isn’t interested in Bangalore Metro 😛
They have burnt their fingers by involving in Hyderabad metro. They aren’t seen anywhere after that.
How is Simplex done any other projects ? They picked few local projects of flyover in Bangalore and they have delayed
If a person would like to travel from Majestic to Gottigere, how would he travel? He travels from Majestic to Jaynagar and then there is no interchange at Jaynagar, in case if he takes RV Road-Bommasandra train somehow he will have to change again at Jayadeva interchange…. Don’t you think it’s quite cumbersome job to traverse 16 km distance? Or do we have trains running from Majestic to Bommasandra without need of change at Jaynagara.
Majestc -> MG Rad -> Gottigere. Isn’t this doable?
This seems to be the best. But given the track record of under ground projects and lack of progress on this strech it isn’t going to be anytime soon that the UG section of Nagawara to Sagar Hospital is going to come up (I do hope it does, but..). I guess this is around 5-6 years away.
And till then, yes Surya Prasad’s suggestion seems to be the only way (if multi-level Jayadeva interchange itself gets done first). This could be done in 3-4 years.
Yes it is a doable option, though it increases travel distance by 1 or 2 km which is negligible when you travel in metro. But considering the speed of completion of the UG projects as Mr. Parthasarathy has mentioned the commuter will have to wait for couple of years more to travel in that stretch of MG Road-Swagat. Also if you think of a person who would like to travel anywhere from Tumkur road to Gottigere will have to change train at Majestic and then MG Road to travel via that stretch. In that case it would be easy to travel through the route I have mentioned. I understand that if the distance increases the travel time and effort increases so changing train twice is acceptable.
Nice to hear about progress (some progress). Hope to see the piling work to start on Ecity strech soon. @TMRG, When can we expect this? Wish the whole elevated line at least comes up quickly and is live by 2021. Do you think this is possible?
and if the same is done for the ITPL extension, then both these extremes of IT corridor will be connected (though in a roundabout manner).
I can see a piling rig stationed at the location of ECity Phase 2 station for close to a month now. Saw one near White feather convention center around 20 days back which have been moved out now. From the looks of it, they would have done some piling work at these locations and might have done some tests as well. But the real challenge on this stretch is demolition. At current speed, it will take no less than two three months to complete the demolition.
Also, not to forget the two special challenges on the land acquisition front of temples and trees. There are around 15-20 small temples at this stretch which in many cases appear to be built to protect the buildings from demolition. They seem to be more strategically located closer to the road. I am not sure if they would really need to demolish these temples or metro can just pass above them or some other arrangement will be done.
Then the second challenge is tree and the green brigade. At a lot of places, demolition is done but the area is not clear as trees need to be cut. You never know when someone’s love for tree will suddenly appear and stall the metro work. So, unless all the area is cleared and barricading is done on the entire stretch, expect surprises.
Another important point that I noted from the latest newsletter was that they don’t want to construct viaducts at the extreme end. Actually they want service road to be shifted to the extreme end and the viaducts will be constructed between service road and the main road. This will be done to avoid shifting of the utilities. But again NHAI has to agree for this after all the land is acquired and service road is built on the acquired land. And if service road needs to be built on the acquired land, then the temples and trees must go away.
Hi TMRG!! you are doing a great job. I always check your pages for info on Bangalore metro and it is amazing.
I also like to read all comments across all posts to know what people are saying. Is it possible for you to add a page just with comments from all pages for a particular city.
That would be nice, but technically not possible.
I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO SEE OPEN DECLERATION ANNOUNCEMENT OF METRO PHASE 2 VENKATESHPURAM STATION FINAL APPROVED PLAN, BUT UNFORTUNATELY NO CHANCE SEEN SINCE LONG TIME. I WANTED TO CONFIRM WHETHER MY PROPERTY UNDER ACQUISITION OR NOT. VISITED MANY OFFICIALS BUT NO PROPER CONFIRMED REPLY.
EXPECTING THE SAME AT THE EARLIEST,
THANK YOU
+91 9945090821 [email protected] 16 AUGUST 2017 7:07 AM
I don’t have info on land acquisition. Try reaching out to BMRCL at the following address.
bmrcl AT dataone DOT in
Hi TMRG
Please share your comments on the new metro rail policy of Central Government
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whl4EuvwYwg (Cabinet approves new metro rail policy)
View of E Sreedharan on new metro policy
———————————————————–
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/nowhere-in-the-world-has-ppp-in-metro-rail-fully-succeeded-says-e-sreedharan-4799989/
Have they published the ETA for the completion of the Baiyappanahalli-Whitefield stretch of the purple line?
Not really, but they’re publicly aiming to complete all lines by 2020 (in addition see this tweet). There’s no chance of that happening with the way things have progressed so far in the pre-construction stage. Only the Kengeri extn (Purple Line) and Anjanapura extn (Green Line) are expected to open up by then.
Hi TMRG,
What is your assessment for Reach 4B based Aug update of BMRCL? Do you see it completing by 2019?
A 2019-end opening is possible, but most likely it’ll open in 2020.
Work on BIEC Metro link begins as Jindal land acquired -Aug 27 2017
——————————————————————————————
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/630021/work-biec-metro-link-begins.html
Whee have you gone TMRG???
I was away travelling, back now 🙂
More than a month that the Bangalore section has seen any update!!
Last update was 2 weeks ago on Aug 11. Let me know if I missed out on any major update while I was gone.
Gottigere to swagath seems to be awarded. But not made official and exact station location not mentioned. How can they award contract??
Traffic near Silk Board Jn to be hit in coming days ( metro work will start soon)
————————————————————-
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/630330/taffic-near-silk-board-jn.html
Preliminary site preparation work has started – see a pic here
When this Project starts and Ends??
Bannerghatta Road metro: When this Project starts and Ends??
Hi TMRG,
One update on Gottigere – Swagath cross metro line.. Metro work has started Near meenakshi mall / Holy spirit school. And also barricades are placed near to IIMB compound. One big question is does BMRCL really has to plan to construct metro station at Gottigere area or is it somewhere near Holy spirit school / Meenakshi Mall..
TMRG , Please try to find Metro station locations..
Hi, I’ll publish a post whenever BMRCL reveals the locations. I’ve got my eyes and ears open for metro updates all the time, even while traveling.
Any updates on the location for stations?
Also any specific location plan for the maintenance Yard?
Hulimavu Station to come up near Chaitanya school and Gottigere station to come up near Loyola institutions.
Its mere half KM radius. BMRCL must reconsider the Gottigere location for fair Inter station distance.
I heard Hulimavu station coming near Hulimavu gate.
Any details?
Heard that there will be station in Hulimavu near the Chaitanya techno school. Can see the demolition work already dine there for the station work. Hearing that the last stop will near the Decathlon and not Gottigere. Just heard no co firmation
contradictory One more news is that last stop is near to Loyala school.. Not even Decathlon.. Work is already started near that place..
Very very poor planning by BMRCL. Gottigere is too far from Loyola School. Lot of space available near Nice Junction. why don’t they relocate Gottigere station there ?
Gottigere station is not actual in gottigere and last station is loyola school near chikkamanahalli start and BMRCL put name as Gottigere station that clarified by BMRCL spokesperson in begur talk on 28 Oct 2018. Could we know Why BMRCL not planned station in actual gottigere area and left these place from Loyola Institution to Gottigere area.