3 Bidders for Bihar Museum – Patna Museum Tunnel’s Retender

Four firms (2 in a consortium) have submitted bids to construct a 1.5 km pedestrian tunnel connecting Bihar & Patna museums in Patna after Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) opened technical bids today.

This unique project (Package PC-08 now retendered as PC-08R) involves construction of a subway connecting both museums, between Bailey Road and Chajju Bagh, at a depth of 16.5 meters by a 8 meter diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM).

To give you an idea of its size, 82 km Delhi-Meerut RAPIDX tunnels are being built using 7.51m diameter TBMs – see images here.

The project was approved in May 2022 with an estimated cost of Rs. 373 crore. In January 2023, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed for its development by the Government of Bihar’s Urban Development and Housing Department (UDHD) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

DMRC in February 2023 invited bids for its construction work with a Rs. 296.41 crore estimate and 900 day (2.46 year) completion deadline. They received one bid from Afcons Infrastructure in April, and the tender was cancelled in July after Afcons’ financial bid of Rs. 397.76 crore, when opened in June, was deemed to high.

DMRC in August 2023 re-invited bids for construction with a revised estimate of Rs. 426.88 crore while keeping the same 900 day deadline.

Bidders

• Afcons Infrastructure – Sam India Builtwell JV
• ITD Cementation
• Larsen & Toubro (L&T)

DMRC’s Brief Scope: Design and Construction of Single Tunnel (SUBWAY) between Bihar and Patna Museum by Shield TBM, Fire Escapes, Ancillary building, Entry/Exits building including Architectural Finishing, Water Supply, Sanitary Installation and Drainage works at Patna.

The air-conditioned tunnel will serve as an art gallery and be equipped with battery-operated golf carts. The entry/exit structures on either side will include a security checkpoint, goods lift (service elevator) and restrooms.

Here are a few renderings shared by DMRC in the past:

The bids have now been sent for technical bid 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 contractor for its construction.

Twin tunnels of Patna Metro Phase 1 project’s 16.86 km Line-1 (Danapur Cantonment – Khemni Chak) will pass underneath this tunnel on Bailey Road with a vertical clearance of 6.5m. A tender notice is still pending for its construction work. There are plans to integrate the museum’s ticketing with the metro system’s.

For more updates, check out the Tunnels section, Patna Metro section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG