Altinok Sole Bidder for Dehradun – Tehri Tunnel’s DPR
March 3, 2022 Update: Tender has been cancelled
January 31 Original Post: Turkey’s Altinok Musavirlik Muhendislik A.S. (Altinok Consulting Engineering Inc.) is the only bidder for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to develop a road tunnel between Dehradun and Tehri in Uttarakhand.
The distance between Dehradun and Tehri is 35 kms as the crow flies. Per Google Maps, the road distance is 97 kms via National Highways NH-7 and NH-34 and comes with an estimated travel time of roughly 3 hours.
This new tunnel by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will pass through the Himalaya’s Saklana Range. It is expected to be at least 20 kms long making it the longest tunnel project in India, if built, resulting in significant time savings.
NHAI invited tenders for this consultancy service in November 2021 and expects the assigned consultant to finalize the DPR in 540 days. Technical bid were opened on January 14.
NHAI’s Brief Scope: Consultancy Services for preparation of DPR for development of Tunnel from Dehradun to Tehri in State of Uttarakhand
Altinok has several Indian projects under its belt, including the under construction Rishikesh – Karnaprayag Railway Line where they’re the Design Consultant for tunnel packages 4 and 9.
For the next steps – If NHAI is satisfied with 1 bidder, then they’ll go on to evaluate Altinok’s technical bid. If they aren’t satisfied and want more bidders to participate, then the procurement process will be cancelled and bids will be re-invited.
We’ll have to wait for the DPR to be finalized, but I reckon it would most likely recommend a drill-and-blast construction method and not a tunnel boring machine-based method.
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– TMRG
How many months taken to prepare dpr
540 day completion period = ~17 months
Any criterion to reach 540 days or 17 months. ?
Notice didn’t have anything else on it
Few points/questions:
1. What would be the value for this DPR contract? I reckon it should not be more than a few crores (say 15-20 crores). NHAI could have just awarded the DPR contract to Altinok. I don’t understand why NHAI cancels/re-invites bids for such low value contract; thereby delaying the whole exercise…
2. Any reason why any other big infra consultancy like AECOM, SYSTRA didn’t bid for such a prestigious project?..lack of relevant skills/competencies, especially in evaluating the fragile geology of the lower Himalayas?
This tunnel should not be drilled. We can see the results as big cracks and destruction of habitate of locals due to these tunnel construction in joshimath and chamba tunnel.
Cancel the tunnel construction.
Tunnel is not neccessary because it can be danger for hill.
Dehradun to Tehri distance is not so much that we need this type of drilling in hill.