L&T Wins Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail Line’s Package 4
Larsen & Toubro today emerged as the lowest bidder for major tunneling work on the under construction 125 km Rishikesh-Karnaprayag railway line which will link both towns in Uttarakhand through 12 stations.
The 15.758 km Package 4 connects chainage 47.360 with 63.118 and will be constructed using at least two tunnel boring machines (TBM), with some NATM work involved. Besides a 15.1 km tunnel (number 8), it includes a 240m embankment for Devprayag Station, a 300m embankment at Janasu and one minor bridge.
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) invited bids for this package in February 2020 with a 60 month (5 year) deadline, and opened technical bids on October 27 to reveal 4 bidders.
RVNL’s Estimate: Rs. 3853.48 crore
Financial Bid Values:
| Firm | Bid |
| Larsen & Toubro | Rs. 3337.60 crore |
| Gulermak | Rs. 3484.34 crore |
| Afcons Infrastructure | Rs. 3790.80 crore |
| Megha Engineering and Infrastructure (MEIL) | Rs. 4019.93 crore |
Contract: RVNL/RKSH-KNPG/Tender/Tunnels/ Pk-4
Brief Scope: Construction of tunnels , formation, construction shaft and other ancillary works from chain age 47 plus 360 to 63 plus 117 km with TBM and NATM under Package-4 in connection with new BG line between and Karanprayag in the state of Uttarakhand.
L&T’s bid of Rs. 3337.60 crore was well below RVNL’s estimate of Rs. 3853.48 crore, so they should be awarded Package 4’s tunneling contract in the coming weeks. Out of a total of 9 tunneling packages, if I’m not mistaken – this will be L&T’s second major win after Package 2 (chainage 33.097 to 18.601) which includes the project’s 6.46 km tunnel #2 and 6.72 km tunnel #3.
A consortium of TUMAS India Pvt. Ltd. – Altinok Musavirlik Muhenislik A.S (JV) is the detailed design consultant (DDC) for Package 4. Per their website:
Main tunnel is 15.757 km long and has 8.8 m inner diameters and 9.7 outer diameters. Escape tunnel is 15.757 km and has 5.0 m inner diameter and 5.7 m outer diameter. Both NATM and TBM drilling method options has been evaluated and TBM has been selected.The width of inlet portal of tunnel has been designed as 22.098 m, and the height of inlet portal has been designed as 13.00 m since the topographic conditions of alignment. The length of inlet portal is 183 m.
The Rishikesh – Karnprayag rail project is considered to be of national importance and is being tracked on the Central Government’s PRAGATI (Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation) portal. When ready, it will help improve connectivity to the Char Dham shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath in the Garhwal region of the Himalayas.
For more updates, check out my Home Page!
– TMRG
It’s good to see that you are also covering other rail projects. In future, if Delhi-Dehradun HSR will start commercial services, then this railway line will act as a feeder Service for devotees of Char Dham Pilgrimage. TMRG, I’ve heard that Both Gujarat Govt. and Central Govt. Have approved the Ahmedabad-Rajkot High Speed Rail and it will be act as a branch of MAHSR. Is it True?
Thanks! I’m going to cover select big-ticket projects’ contracts as and when I hear something. Primary focus will still be on metros. 🙂
Ahmedabad-Rajkot HSR was in the news for getting an ‘in-principle’ approval from the state government, which in the end means nothing. Its cabinet needs to formally approve the project. After that DPR will be sent to CG.
What gets is me is why didn’t they just extend MAHSR and are instead building a standard gauge semi HSR instead? Broad gauge toh IR mainline se link ho jaata but standard banaa rahe hain toh at least the alignment could have been made fit for 350kph, even if they run trains at slower speeds in the initial years to save on ticket prices.
I think MAHSR is also standard gauge..
Yes, all HSR in India will be Standard Gauge to Reduce cost
Is DFC project among one of those ‘select big-ticket projects’ you are gonna cover?
If yes, will look forward to your post; PM is opening a 306km section tomorrow..
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1686252
Only going to cover contracts for now, not status/openings 🙂
Its really nice to see you covered this project also, it would be wonderful if you make a page for this project describing all the packages. As, udhampur-katra-baramulla project gonna be finished in near future but after that delhi – leh railway project might catch some pace so do post regarding that also if possible.
Yup, will setup a new page. Not sure where to place it on the menu bar. Any ideas?
You can make a page for ‘Himalaya Region Railway’ … Which will include projects from jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttrakhand,Himachal Pradesh, sikkim and seven sister states/ northeast
You may think of having “Intra-city rail” which has a dropdown menu for metros, monorails, local trains etc. and “Intercity rail” which has the Himalayan section, HSR, SHSR, RRTS, DFT etc.. The name for Intracity can be kept as Metros for the time being..
“Other” section can be added once you start the expressways, airports, bridges, etc..
Also, for visual updates, you can have some YouTube vloggers as affiliates/partners, and use their on the ground videos for updates..
The page can be named as “Indian Railways Projects”..which can be placed on the menu bar alongside the ‘High Speed’
Cover rob dhobi ghat bridge in Ghaziabad
Not sure if I can track rail overbridges’ contracts/status 😀
Really appreciate this kind of updates , if possible try to cover the rail projects happening in Kashmir and north east and some here and there updates regarding electrification of Indian railways . I know it will be difficult for you but still u can give it a try .
I’ll be covering only contracts for now, otherwise things will get unmanageable and hairy pretty quickly. I think folks on YouTube do a great job on visual updates.
Really nice work. Also, you are doing a great job man. I would just say just gradually add more things. I don’t want you to get burned out.
Thanks for looking out! I’m just going to cover contract related developments and don’t think there’ll be more than 2-5/month. Primary focus will still be on metro/HSR 🙂
Thank ful to metro rail guy,his favourite is underground as my.👍please keep update,
Great updates on the tender contracts. Could you please provide an update if the Sikkiim railway project moved any further? And also about the Meghalaya railway project. Regards
Big Challenge,
Big Transperancy in Tender process.
Who’s the executing agency for both projects? RVNL?
Thanks for such updates! Regarding this project, how many packages are there? And what are the statuses of those? Is there any table of details available for this project, like you have for some of the others?
Supposed to be 8-9 tunnel packages. I’m trying to gather a status of each – will share details on the page. It should be up hopefully this weekend.
New page is up. Link: https://themetrorailguy.com/rishikesh-karnaprayag-rail-project-route-map-stations-tenders-updates/
Have renamed the ‘Resources’ tab to ‘Misc.’ and added it to a new ‘Misc Projects’ section. Let me know if there’s some specific info I should add.
Questions:
1. What’s the rationale of selecting TBM over NATM? Have enough bore-hole samples been taken that it can be ascertained with surety that TBM won’t encounter any hard rock over 15km length?
2. Given TBMs are selected. What’s the daily tunneling rate being considered (OR what tunneling rate is practically possible in the Himalayan terrain)? So far, has any tunnel been bored in the Himalayas using TBM?
One TBM running at 5m/day would take 3151 days (= 105 months = 8.75 Years) to bore 15.757kms. Two TBMs (one each from each end) running at 5m/day would take 1576 days (= 52.5 months = 4.4 Years)…that’s too without considering any mechanical downtime, repairs, maintenance of the TBM…What’s the targeted commissioning date/Year?
3. Why is the inner diameter (ID) been selected as 8.8m? Isn’t it too big? Does IR select this ID for all its tunnels? What’s the Tunnel ID for DMRC’s broad-gauge lines (Red, Blue, Yellow)?
4. The pic you have attached shows a serpentine alignment – which appears to be a misrepresentation. I believe the actual alignment would be much straighter (i.e. less no. of bends/curves). What’s the min. radius of curvature selected?
5. Why is there an Escape tunnel? Aren’t we gold plating the entire project (thus delaying commissioning)? Recently, the safety(escape) tunnel of Zozila highway tunnel project has been scrapped – merely due to cost escalations.
Even if the Escape Tunnel is a must from safety perspective, I think the project can be executed/commissioned much faster by excluding the escape tunnel initially – i.e., commission the main line (main tunnel) without the escape tunnel first and make the train operations as ‘weather/environment restricted’, until the time escape tunnel is commissioned (some years later). Later, once the escape tunnel is ready, the line becomes an ‘all-weather route’…
6. What type of tracks selected for the project? – Tracks with Ballast? Or Ballastless (slab) tracks?
7. What’s RVNL’s track record in executing mountain tunnel projects?
8. What’s Altinok’s track record in India?
I don’t have specific date/info on most of the questions! Hopefully someone from the industry reading this can answer. You’re right on the alignment – expected to be a lot straighter. Delhi’s BG lines have a 6m internal diameter. For SG lines, it’s 5.8m.
Noted mate, thanks; will wait for someone to provide the answers..
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