6 Bidders for Indore Metro’s IN-05R Underground Construction Work

6 construction firms (2 in a consortium) today submitted bids for the civil construction contract of Indore Metro Yellow Line‘s underground section after Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MPMRCL) opened technical bids.

8.626 km long underground package IN-05R with twin tunnels will connect a ramp east of Indore Railway Station with a ramp west of Indore’s Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport via 7 underground stations located at Indore Railway Station, Rajwada, Chota Ganpati, Bada Ganpati, Ramchandra Nagar, BSF / Kalani Nagar, and Airport.

This is the first and only underground package of the 33.53 km Indore Metro Phase 1 project. On the east-side, it will be connected to Package IN-04 (under construction by RVNL – URCC JV), and on the west-side it will be connected to Package IN-03 (under construction by URCC via a subcontract by RVNL).

MPMRCL requires the assigned contractor to deploy at least 4 tunnel boring machines (TBMs) for constructing 16 tunnels.

MPMRCL had originally invited bids for this contract in February 2024 under package IN-05, and then cancelled the re-invited bids under IN-05R with a Rs. 2550 crore estimate and 4 year deadline.

Bidders

• Afcons Infrastructure – Sam India Consortium
• Gulermak Agir Sanayi Insaat Ve Taahhut A.S.
• Hindustan Construction Co. – Tata Projects Ltd. (HCC – TPL JV)
• ITD Cementation India Ltd.
• J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd. (JKIL)
• Larsen and Toubro Ltd. (L&T)

Package: IN-05R

Brief Scope: Design & Construction of Twin Tunnel (Up & Down by Shield TBM), Cut & Cover, Cross-passages with/without sump, Ramps, Seven (07) Underground Stations (Indore Railway station, Rajwada, Chota Ganpati, Bada Ganpati, Ramchandra Nagar, BSF/Kalani Nagar and Airport) including Architectural finishing, Plumbing (Water Supply, Sanitary Installation, Drainage facilities and other Plumbing work as directed by the Engineer) works in entire Underground Section from chainage 5+862 to 14+482.347~14+488 for Indore Metro Rail Project

The bids have now been sent for technical evaluation which can take a couple months to complete. When that is done, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders will be opened to reveal who’s the lowest bidder and most likely contractor.

This contract will be financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) USD $200 million loan which is currently pending ADB’s board’s approval – see ADB’s project sheet.

It took MPMRCL a hot minute to finally close the submission period and open technical bids, but I’m glad we’re at this stage before the year ended. With this development, I expect financial bids to be opened towards the end of Q1 2025, hopefully a contract getting awarded in Q2 2025 (depending on how bids are placed), and basic construction work starting in Q3 2025 with tunneling work starting in Q3 2026.

This is Yellow Line’s 6th and final civil package waiting to get awarded – see a list of all Indore Metro packages and their status / contractors over here.

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– TMRG