Chennai Metro Phase 2: Shellinfo Awarded AFC Contract AFA-03A

Another contract down! A consortium of Shellinfo Singapore – Shellinfo India was in November-end awarded the back-office contract (AFA03) for the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) System of 26.09 km Chennai Metro Line-4.

This under construction line with a combination of elevated and underground sections will connect Light House – Poonamallee Bypass through 30 stations.

Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) had invited tenders for this critical Chennai Metro Phase 2 system in February 2023, financed by New Development Bank (NDB), with an unknown estimate and 1570 (4.3 year) deadline.

Technical bids were opened in October to reveal 6 bidders. Two of the bidders, Paycraft Solutions – Saraswat Infotech JV and RAF-CS India – Revenue Collection System France JV, were found to be non-compliant to the tender conditions and disqualified.

Financial bids for the technically qualified 4 bidders were opened in September 2023 to reveal Shellinfo as the lowest bidder.

Financial Bid Values (Recap)

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
Shellinfo	42.57
Aurionpro Solutions	46.13
Nippon Signal	94.87
MSI Global	96.63

Tender: CMRL/PHASE-II/SYS/C4 – AFA03a/2023

Brief Scope: Design, Manufacture, Supply, Installation, Testing, Commissioning & Integration of Back Office for Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) System for CMRL Phase II – Corridor 4

This is Shellinfo’s second contract in India after Hyderabad Metro’s Phase 1 project.

A contract is yet to be awarded for installing the AFC system’s equipment (Package AFA03B) across all stations. I hear financial bids were opened in October but the winner remains elusive.

These 2 AFC packages are among the last few packages for Line-4 where all 5 civil packages are under construction with contracts having been awarded for major system components such as rolling stock (awarded to Alstom), electrification (awarded to Siemens) and telecom (awarded to Larsen & Toubro)

A list of all Chennai Metro Phase 2 civil & system packages and their status can be viewed here.

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– TMRG