Altinok & RITES Bid for Dehradun – Tehri Tunnel’s DPR

Altinok Consulting Engineering Inc. and RITES Ltd. have submitted bids to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a new road tunnel between Dehradun and Tehri in Uttarakhand.

This is a retender for the project’s DPR consultancy work and technical bids were opened on Thursday. Altinok was the only bidder in the first round, launched in November 2021, which got cancelled in March. NHAI shortly re-invited tenders with a 540 day completion deadline.

As shared earlier, 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’s Brief Scope: Consultancy Services for preparation of DPR for development of Tunnel from Dehradun to Tehri in State of Uttarakhand

Location of Dehradun & Tehri in Uttarakhand

Turkey’s 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.

If NHAI is now satisfied with an additional bidder joining the fray, then the bids will be sent for technical evaluation which can take a couple months to complete. When that is done, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders will be opened to reveal who’s the lowest bidder and most likely consultant.

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

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

6 Responses to "Altinok & RITES Bid for Dehradun – Tehri Tunnel’s DPR"

  1. saket says:

    Is this a high traffic route? Does it make sense to build such a costly tunnel here?

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      That’s why a DPR is being prepared 🙂

      Reply
    • Arpit says:

      Once Delhi Dehradun expressway is complete, a lot of char dham traffic will end up on this route.

      The previous Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Devprayag alignment will be redundant.

      It would be Delhi-Dehradun-New Tehri and then move towards respective temple

      Obviously there is also the train to Karnarayag it will compete with and it has to be seen whether those fragile mountains can really handle the influx of millions of passengers these mega projects can deliver

      Reply
  2. Mayank says:

    Approx how much will it cost?

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      DPR prep? Maybe 30-50 crore? Actual tunnel? We’ll have to see what the DPR recommends. Should be upwards of Rs 4000 crore.

      Reply
  3. Gaurav Rawat says:

    This region is fragile and blasting method should not be used. It can actually be catastrophic because two large dams are in the vicinity.

    Reply

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