ABS Aircon Wins Patna – Bihar Museums Tunnel’s E&M Contract PE-09

June 24, 2024 Update: DMRC has awarded ABS Aircon Engineers with a Rs. 36,07,81,664 contract inclusive of all taxes.

May 29, 2024 Original Post: ABS Aircon Engineers Pvt. Ltd. last week was declared as the lowest bidder to install Electrical & Mechanical (E&M) and other systems within a new pedestrian tunnel connecting Patna Museum and Bihar Museum in Patna, Bihar.

This unique project by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) involves construction of a 1.5 km long subway connecting both museums, between Bailey Road and Chajju Bagh, by a 8 meter diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM) at a depth of 16.5 meters.

To give you an idea of the tunnel’s size, the 82 km Delhi-Meerut RapidX project’s recently completed tunnels have been built using 7.51m diameter TBMs – see images here.

The tunnel’s Rs. 374.12 crore civil construction contract (Package PC-08R) was awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in December 2023.

DMRC then in January 2024 invited bids for its systems work (Package PE-09) with a Rs. 30.85 crore estimate and 2 year deadline. They received 2 bids in March 2024 from ABS Aircon Engineers and EFKON India, both of which qualified through the technical stage.

Financial Bid Values

Financial bids were opened on May 20, 2024.

Firm	Bid (Rs. crore)
ABS Aircon Engineers	36.15
EFKON India	44.40

DMRC’s Brief Scope: Design, Detail Engineering, Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning of Electrical and Mechanical System, Fire Detection, Fire Suppression, DG Sets, Elevators and BMS work for Subway Connecting Patna Museum and Bihar Museum 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:

ABS’ bid of Rs. 36.15 crore was 16.80% higher than DMRC’s estimate. This isn’t terribly high, so I see a contract getting awarded after some back & forth negotiations. There might be some wiggle room.

As shared in the past – twin tunnels of Patna Metro’s 16.86 km Line-1 (Danapur Cantonment – Khemni Chak) will pass underneath this pedestrian tunnel on Bailey Road with a vertical clearance of 6.5m.

Bidding has been underway since December 2023 for constructing those tunnels via packages PC-05 & PC-06. From the original submission deadline of February 13, the submission deadline has now been pushed out to June 21 with technical bids scheduled to open on June 24.

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