L&T Awarded Mumbai – Ahmedabad HSR’s 1st Civil Contract
In a BSE filing, Larsen & Toubro on Wednesday announced it has been awarded a contract to build the 237.1 km Package C4 of the 508.17 km Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR Bullet Train) that aims to connect both cities through 12 stations at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.1 lakh crore (US$15 billion).
Package C4 – the first package to be awarded so far for the main-line – represents 46.66% of the main-line making it the longest amongst all, and runs elevated from Zaroli Village on the Maharashtra – Gujarat border to Vadodara Station through 4 stations at Vapi, Bilimora, Surat and Bharuch in Gujarat.
India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) had opened financial bids from 3 firms / consortia on October 23 in which Larsen & Toubro emerged as the lowest bidder.
Although L&T’s bid was the lowest, it was still approximately Rs 4,985.164 (24.925%) higher than NHSRCL’s estimate of Rs. 20,000. Oddly enough, the final contract value has not been mentioned in the L&T’s press release so it remains to be seen if the contract was awarded as-is (in the interest of time) or negotiated down.
With this development, a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for India’s first high speed rail project can be expected to take place by year-end.
All eyes are now on Package C6 (Vadodara – Ahmedabad) for which technical bid evaluation is expected to be wrapped up in the coming weeks. Here’s a status of each civil package of the main-line – this table is best viewed on a desktop device.
| Package & Scope | Status |
| C1: 1.028 km Underground Station at BKC, Mumbai | Bids Invited in November 2019; Current Submission Deadline: December 21, 2020 |
| C2: 20.377 km underground tunnel between BKC Station to Shilphata, Thane (3 Mega TBMs to be used) | Bid Submission Deadline Passed – No Bids Received |
| C3: 135.450 km elevated line between Shilphata, Thane and Zaroli Village (MH/GJ Border) | Tender Notice Pending |
| C4: 237.1 km elevated line between Zaroli Village (MH/GJ Border) and Vadodara | Awarded to L&T (this post!) |
| C5: 8.198 km elevated viaduct and station within Vadodara | Tender Notice Pending |
| C6: 87.569 km elevated viaduct between Vadodara and Ahmedabad | Technical Bid Evaluation Underway (3 bids received on September 25) |
| C7: 18.133 km elevated viaduct and station within Ahmedabad | Bids Invited October 8 |
| C8: 2.126 km viaduct, building works at Sabarmati Depot | Bids Invited October 23 |
For more updates, check out the High Speed Rail section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Hat-Tip to Sanket
When is the deadline?
Basic tender notice did not include a completion timeframe, but from what I see in the tender addendums, it’s 5 years
Great News ? Does the FB has open for C6 ?
Soon…
Excellent!!
Better sense prevailed….that NHSRCL didn’t invite re-tenders despite L&T’s bid being 25% higher than their estimate. Re-tendering would’ve meant loss of much precious time…
I wonder how come NHSRCL is this late in awarding the major civil packages. Modi / Shinzo Abe did foundation laying in Sept’17….these civil tender should have been awarded by 2018-end or early-2019..
237km viaduct contract – NHSRCL would have definitely saved some money by splitting this package into smaller packages…but that would’ve come with the headache of managing multiple contractors; and their schedules, interfaces, conflicts, change-orders, delays etc..
I expect L&T will also sub-contract certain jobs (smaller packages!!)…but then they are being paid the premium to handle NHSRCL’s headache…
…i think SNS would have finally offered some discount (may be couple of thousand of crores!!); probably that’s the reason L&T didn’t disclose the contract value.
Given the LA along this chainage is mostly done and ROW access wouldn’t be major issue in the rural hinterland, i expect L&T to deliver earlier than the contract completion dates…unlike Hyd metro where it ran into trouble (delays!) due to unavailability of ROW access
..good going, contract in safe hand!!
C2 – No bids received – that means it’s technically too challenging a job..& that the potential bidder don’t have adequate competency to take-up the job…don’t know what plan is there in NHSRCL’s bosses mind?…appears to be a perplexing situation for them.
C3 – by slowing down the land acquisition process, the Shiv-sena (MVA) nincompoops have taken the project for a ride…
In case of C2, yes u r right. It will be a big challenge to construct an Underground HSR tunnel. That’s why, NHSRCL want Indian companies to make a mandatory JV with Japanese Companies. But, this would mean a much higher bids, as Japan have a higher labour cost compare to India.
When nhsrcl invite bids for package C5
L&T has stopped giving exact contract award values for more than 2 years now. You can check their press releases.
Is the 280m long tunnel, south of Vapi, part of this contract?
Yes
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