Afcons Wins Kasheli – Mulund Water Tunnel’s Contract in Mumbai

Afcons Infrastructure on Thursday was declared as the lowest bidder to construct a new water conveyance tunnel in Mumbai between Kasheli (Bhiwandi) and Mulund’s Octroi Naka by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

This tunnel in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs is part of a larger water supply project, with another 14.1 km tunnel approved to connect Yewai Master Balancing Reservoir to Kasheli (Bhiwandi). APCO Infratech was declared as the lowest bidder for that project’s construction in May 2024.

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 a face rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) at depths reaching roughly 150 meters. For comparison, the diameter of metro tunnels built in India by TBMs have so far ranged between 5.5m to 5.8m.

BMC had originally invited bids for this package in February 2024 and 6 year construction deadline. Technical bids were opened in May 2024 to reveal 2 bidders – APCO Infratech & Afcons Infrastructure, but the tender was cancelled even before financial bids were opened.

BMC re-invited bids for the project in mid-May with a Rs. 1910 crore estimate and this time received 2 bids from Afcons Infrastructure and Larsen & Toubro when technical bids were opened on May 31.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
Afcons Infrastructure	1899.36
Larsen & Toubro	1976.00

BMC’s Brief Scope: Design and construction of Tunnel from Kasheli Bhiwandi to Mulund Octroi Naka

Afcons’ bid of Rs. 1899.36 crore was well below BMC’s estimate of Rs. 1910 crore, so a contract should be awarded in the coming weeks without a long financial bid evaluation period.

With this development I expect basic ground work to start towards the end of the monsoons in September, full fledged construction for TBM shafts in Q4 (October – December), and tunneling work an entire year later in Q1 2026 (January – March).

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– TMRG