DBL, MCL & DP Jain Win Bangalore – Chennai Expressway’s Work

Dilip Buildcon, Montecarlo and DP Jain & Co. Infrastructure on Thursday emerged as the lowest bidders for 3 packages of the 260.85 km Bangalore – Chennai Expressway after National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) opened financial bids.

These 24-29 km 4-lane sections are located in the middle and eastern-half connecting Andhra Pradesh with Tamil Nadu. Like all other packages of this access-controlled road, they will be expandable to 8 lanes in the future.

NHAI invited bids for these packages in September-October 2020 with a completion period / deadline of 730 days (2 years).

Phase 2 – Package 3

Brief Scope: Construction of 8 lane Bangalore – Chennai Expressway from Km 127.000 to Km 156.000 (Bangarupalem to Gudipala Section in the State of Andhra Pradesh under Bharatmala on Hybrid Annuity Mode (Phase II-Package III)

• Contract: NHAI/AP/BCE/PhaseII/P-III/2020
• NHAI’s estimate: Rs. 911.20 crore

Financial Bid Values of Lowest 5 Technically-Qualified Bidders:

Firm	Bid
Dilip Buildcon	Rs. 989.36 crore
Rithwik Projects	Rs. 1062.89 crore
GR Infra	Rs. 1077.35 crore
Adani Infra	Rs. 1082.16 crore
Megha (MEIL)	Rs. 1084.27 crore

Phase 3 – Package 1

Brief Scope: Construction of 8 lane Bangalore – Chennai Expressway from Km 156.000 to Km 180.000 (Gudipala to Walajahpet Section in the State of Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu under Bharatmala on Hybrid Annuity Mode (Phase III-Package I)

• Contract: NHAI/TN/BCE/PhaseIII/P-I/2020
• NHAI’s Estimate: Rs. 928.34 crore
• Technical Bids Opened: January 8 (13 bidders)

Financial Bid Values of Lowest 5 Technically-Qualified Bidders:

Firm	Bid
Montecarlo	Rs. 1104.46 crore
IRCON	Rs. 1124.65 crore
DBL	Rs. 1132.52 crore
Adani Infra	Rs. 1169.89 crore
GR Infra	Rs. 1172.74 crore

Phase 3 – Package 3

Brief Scope: Construction of Four lane Bangalore Chennai Expressway from Ch. 204.500 to Ch. 230.000 (Arakkonam to Kanchepuram Section in the State of Tamil Nadu) under Bharatmala on HAM (Phase III-Package III)

• Contract: NHAI/Tech/TN/BCE/ PhaseIII/P-III/2020
• NHAI’s Estimate: Rs 855.86 crore
• Technical Bids Opened: January 6 (8 bidders)

Financial Bid Values of Lowest 5 Technically-Qualified Bidders:

Firm	Bid
DP Jain	Rs. 1005.44 crore
Ramalingam (RCCL)	Rs. 1063.85 crore
IRB Infra	Rs. 1085.24 crore
Adani Infra	Rs. 1104.29 crore
Montecarlo	Rs. 1156.95 crore

The lowest bids, especially Phase 3’s P1/P3, were substantially higher than NHAI’s estimates – so remains to be seen if NHAI will award them as-is in the interest of time, negotiate to reduce cost/scope or go in for a retender.

On Wednesday, Dilip Buildcon emerged as the lowest bidder for 2 packages on the Bengaluru-end of the expressway. Even there the bids were substantially higher, which when combined with this post’s 3 packages, affects more than half of the project and prevents NHAI from quickly awarding contracts.

I’ve created an information page for this expressway with some basic information and status of all 10 contracts. Check it out here.

In case you missed it, I started tracking miscellaneous big-ticket contracts earlier this year and this fits right in. Other such posts can be viewed here.

For more updates, check out my Home Page!

– TMRG