ABS Fujitsu Wins Chennai Metro Line-4’s Underground VAC & TVS Contract

ABS Fujitsu General Pvt. Ltd. on Monday was declared as the lowest bidder for Chennai Metro Line-4’s ventilation and air conditioning (VAC), tunnel ventilation system (TVS), electrical and SCADA system contract C4-VAC&TVS-12 by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL).

26.09 km long Line-4 of the 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project will connect Light House – Poonamallee Bypass through 30 stations. It will consist of a 10 km underground section with twin tunnels connecting Power House Ramp – Light House Station.

The scope of contract C4-VAC&TVS-12 includes system works at 8 of its 10 underground stations located at Light House, Kutchery Road, Alwarpet, Bharatidasan Road, Boat Club, Nandanam, Panagal Park, and Kodambakkam. All of these stations are under construction by ITD Cementation India as part of packages UG-01 (5.15 km) & UG-02 (4.87 km) awarded in January 2022.

CMRL had invited tenders for this systems contract in October 2023 with an unknown estimate and 1160 day (3.17 year) completion deadline. Technical bids were opened in February 2024 to reveal 6 bidders.

During technical evaluation, ETA Engineering’s bid was found non-compliant to the tender’s conditions and was disqualified. This is surprising to me as ETA has executed multiple projects across India, so I wonder what went wrong.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
ABS Fujitsu General Pvt. Ltd.	189.35
EFKON India Pvt. Ltd. – Ed. Zublin AG JV	202.49
Blue Star Ltd.	248.48
Larsen & Toubro Ltd.	278.73
Universal MEP Projects & Engineering Services Ltd. (Voltas)	317.42

CMRL’s Brief Scope: Design verification & validation, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, supply of spares & special tools, operations and maintenance during two (02) years defect liability period (DLP) andfive (05) years comprehensive annual maintenance contract (CAMC) of ventilation and air conditioning (VAC), tunnel ventilation system (TVS), associated electrical and integrated SCADA works for eight (08) underground stations in corridor-4 (C4) from Lighthouse to Kodambakkam Station, including C4 related TVS SCADA works at Thirumayilai Station and integrated station management systems (ISMS) at OCC and BOCC

I’m not aware of CMRL’s estimate, so can’t provide an assessment on the chances of a contract getting issued to ABS Fujitsu. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out, but given how their bid is placed relatively to others – this will definitely be awarded to them.

The construction of Thirumayilai Station (interchange of Line-3 & Line-4) was awarded to RVNL in June 2023 as part of Package UG04-RT01, so I reckon its VAC & TVS work will be done as part of Line-3’s system works for which tender notices are currently pending.

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

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– TMRG