BMRCL Invites Bids for Bangalore’s Hosa Road – HSR Layout Stretch
A day after inviting bids for Bangalore’s Bommasandra-Hosa Road (Reach 5) stretch, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation on December 10 invited construction bids for another section of the 72 km Phase 2 project’s new 18.80 km RV Road – Bommasandra elevated line. This time around, they invited infrastructure companies to submit bids for the 6.385 km mid-section of the line between Hosa Road and HSR Layout which’ll consist of 6 stations on Hosur Road.
Notice Inviting Tenders
On behalf of Managing Director, BMRCL, General Manager (Contracts) invites Tenders for the work of “Construction of Elevated structures (Viaduct & Stations) of length 6.385Km (approx.) from Hosa road station (Incl.) to HSR Layout station (Incl.) (Chainage 12173.092m to 5788.520m) including Road widening & allied works and 6 Numbers of Metro Stations viz., Hosa Road , Basapura Road , Chikkabegur , Muneshwara Nagar , Oxford College ,HSR layout in Reach-5 line of Bangalore Metro Rail Project, Phase 2.” – link to notice
Interestingly this section has also been named ‘Reach 5’ instead of Reach 5A/5B as they’ve traditionally done to differentiate between adjacent civil packages. Like the Hosa Road – Bommasandra stretch, the contractor here will also be required to complete all civil works in 27 months.
Reach 5’s Map – view Bangalore Metro Phase 2 information & map
A detailed PDF document which shows the exact locations of all stations can be viewed here.
Tender documents will go on sale on December 24, 2016 and the BMRCL has estimated this section to cost Rs. 492.38 crores. The last date for submitting bidding documents is 3 pm on March 6, 2017 after which the bids will be opened & evaluated for eligibility at 3:30 pm.
BMRCL’s CPRO recently mentioned that construction “work should commence in about 3 months”. Well, that just won’t be possible. The tendering process for civil contracts in India have multiple layers and each bidder’s eligibility is first evaluated, then their technical bid and finally their financial bid. Each step of the process is closely monitored by the lending agency (in this case KfW), and bids are opened & awarded only with their consent with the evaluation process usually taking an average of 6 months. Here’s the BMRCL’s track record for Phase 2:
| Reach | Bids Invited | Contract Awarded |
| 2A | June 30, 2014 | April 23, 2015 |
| 4B | February 2, 2015 | January 27, 2016 |
| 2B | May 21, 2015 | March 9, 2016 |
And that’s just the tendering stage. After the contract is awarded, the contractor would be need another 2-3 months just to mobilize resources and hire engineers. To see these timelines in action, simply visit the Lucknow or Mumbai sections where new contracts have been awarded over the past 6 months.
Like the other packages, I expect the contract for the Hosa Road – HSR Layout section to also be awarded only in Q3 2017 with construction work beginning shortly after in Q4 2017 subject to approvals. Timing wise, I expect this section to open no sooner than 2021. If the BMRCL chooses to start operations on it along with the northern portion of the line (RV Road – Silk Board), then I expect it to open only by 2023.
For more updates, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
CPRO is the biggest liar after the MD. Why do you even bother?
To inform readers/followers on how things actually work so that they do not blindly believe in the govt/BMRCL’s sugarcoated messages.
BMRCL cannot even prioritize and complete work on small 1 KM Underground stretch of Malleshwaram to Majestic , even completed Elevated stretch of National College JP Nagar is not opened to mismanagement of BMRCL, wonder what all mess up they do in Phase 2 , Considering BMRCL mismanagement even 2023 is bit early estimate
Yea, let’s see what the construction phase throws up in the coming years after the contract is awarded. I’ll have to make suitable changes to the estimate based on that.
Well, I’m just glad to see that the process has started and they’ve rolled it out in quick succession. Hope they have few more surprises in the store (that being optimistic – but I am sure what you state is more precise).
Pretty glad here as well! 😀
While NCC launched the 1st segment in 10 months, why is ILFS taking 22 months to do the same, since they were awarded the contract in April 2015 for Reach 2 ext ?
IL&FS ran into some design issues and had to wait a long time for the BMRCL to secure approvals for cutting down trees on the line’s alignment. This Sunday they began assembling their 1st launching gantry crane at Nayandahalli (see pic), so give it another 30-45 days for segment launching to commence.
I have very simple question, pls pardon if already answered somewhere.
How exactly are they proposing to build this section with an elevated flyover already present?
Hi, the metro line’s viaduct will come up on the west side of the BETL highway. See this document (also linked above) to see its exact alignment.
From Nagasandara to BIC has started the construction is it not possible to go towards Nelamangala and there to the industrial area Dabespet.