APCO Wins Yewai – Kasheli Water Tunnel’s Contract in Mumbai

APCO Infratech last Friday was declared as the lowest bidder to construct a new water conveyance tunnel from Yewai Master Balancing Reservoir to Kasheli (Bhiwandi) by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Thane District, Maharashtra.

This 14.1 km long tunnel will supply water to the eastern suburbs of Mumbai, while the existing network of pipelines will be utilized as a back-up. TATA Consulting Engineers (TCE) has been engaged by BMC as the project’s design consultant.

The project’s 5.3m diameter tunnel will be built using at least two full face rock tunnel boring machines (TBMs). For comparison, the diameter of metro tunnels built in India by TBMs have so far ranged between 5.5m to 5.8m.

Per the tender documents, two extremely deep vertical shafts with a diameter of 14m will be built at Yewai (178m deep) and Tarali (157m deep) by drilling and controlled blasting method with reinforced concrete supporting arrangement such as circular well/secant piling etc.

Tunneling works will be carried out in 2 drives – shaft at Yewai (MBR) to Tarali shaft (of approx. length 6.95km) and from shaft at Tarali to Kasheli shaft (of approx. length 7.15km). The construction of Kasheli shaft is covered in a separate contract (details at bottom of my post).

BMC had invited bids for this package (Contract YKT) in February 2024 with an unknown estimate and 6 year construction deadline. Technical bids were opened in early May to reveal 2 bidders – APCO Infratech & Afcons Infrastructure, and both qualified through the technical evaluation round.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
APCO Infratech	3577.51
Afcons Infra	3708.45

BMC’s Brief Scope: Design and construction of Tunnel from Yewai Master Balancing Reservoir to Kasheli Tal. Bhiwandi Dist. Thane

BMC’s estimate remains unknown to me, so I can’t provide an assessment on the chances of a contract getting issued. I don’t actively track water projects as extensively as metro rail and expressways, but I’ll set a reminder to check with my contacts in a couple months from now to see what happened.

This tunnel is part of a larger water supply project, with another 7 km tunnel planned to connect Kasheli (Bhiwandi) and Mulund (Octroi Naka). That tender also received 2 bids – from APCO & Afcons – in early May, but has now been cancelled and retendered out.

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– TMRG