L&T Emerges as Lowest Bidder for Ahmedabad Metro’s UG Section
Yesterday, Larsen & Toubro emerged as the lowest bidder for both packages of Ahmedabad Metro’s 6.83 km underground section after the Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar & Ahmedabad (MEGA) opened the financial bids submitted by different infrastructure companies for its construction.
MEGA had invited bids for the construction of both packages on March 26, 2016 and 3 firms qualified through the pre-qualification & technical bid stages, and onward to the (last) financial bid stage. They estimated & budgeted both packages to be worth approx. Rs 1500 crore, but will end up spending a little more. Here are the price bids submitted by each firm:
• Package 1 – East Ramp to Kalupur Railway Station with 2 stations at Kankaria East and Kalupur Railway Station (2.446 km)
| Firm | Bid |
| L&T | Rs. 748 cr |
| Afcons Infra | Rs. 784.80 cr |
| ITD-SKEC JV | Rs. 808. 64 cr |
• Package 2 – Kalupur Railway Station (excluding) to West Ramp with 2 stations at Shahpur and Ghee Kanta (4.378 km)
| Firm | Bid |
| L&T | Rs. 901 cr |
| Afcons Infra | Rs. 941.85 cr |
| ITD-SKEC JV | Rs. 1004.80 cr |
Note: As per the bidding rules (in italics below) in MEGA’s notice inviting tenders, a contractor can only win 1 package out of the 2. In this case, L&T will be awarded package-2 while the next lowest bidder, Afcons Infrastructure, will be awarded package-1.
Bidders may bid for one or two contracts (i.e. Package UG– 1 & 2), but the successful Bidder will be awarded only one contract, as further defined in the Bidding Documents.
Underground section’s alignment between West Ramp & East Ramp – view Ahmedabad Metro map & info
MEGA will now seek the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s approval and should be able to award both contracts to L&T and Afcons Infrastructure in January 2017. After the letters of award (LOA) are handed over, initial preparatory work can be expected to begin in March and tunneling work using TBMs in mid-2018.
Overall, Larsen & Toubro and Afcons Infrastructure will have 36 months to finish all tunnels and station civil work. During & followed by that, it would take other contractors and officials anywhere from 1-2 years for completing interior works, track-work, platform screen door (view info) & ancillary sub-system installation, testing and safety inspection. Looking at that, and if all pieces fall into place without any significant delays, then the earliest I expect this section to open up for commercial operations would be early 2022.
In other news, within a week, MEGA will open the financial bids for the remaining 2 packages of the 39.259 km Phase 1 project:
- Thaltej Gam – Sabarmati (8.21 km) on the EW line – view details & map
- Shreyas – Ranip (8.94 km) on the NS line – view details & map
Stay tuned to find out the lowest bidders who’ll go on to build these crucial parts of Ahmedabad’s Metro 😀
For more updates, check out the Ahmedabad section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
When will bangalore metro’s underground bids be opened?
First the BMRCL needs to invite bids. Hopefully soon..
How many TBMs will be used?
The tender docs require 2 on package#1 and 3 on package#2. I’ll write a separate post when the TBM deals are concluded.
Is it confirmed how many TBM to be used?
Hi, L&T will use 3 TBMs on package#2 – this is confirmed.
Afcons’ TBMs on package#1 are unconfirmed, but most likely 2 will be used as per MEGA’s requirements.
Any update on Rolling Stock and Signaling?
No update on that. Would be quite embarrassing for Bombardier if they don’t win the RS contract.
why embarracing for bombardier?
They have a coach production facility just 90 km away from Ahmedabad in Savli. After winning Delhi Metro’s RS-2 contract in 2007, they haven’t won a single contract elsewhere in the country. So for them to lose in their own territory would be quite embarrassing and their inability to secure orders can cause an adverse impact on the facility.
It’ll be more embarrassing for GoG. to import coach from anyoher state when they have a RS facility. It will be a double whammy not to mention the loss of job and opposition barbs.
No wonder MEGA has been in lurch and has dilly dallied the tender for so long. Ideally they should have awarded it way before than Nagpur Metro.
Make one correction, in MEGA its not Thaltej Gam – Sabarmati, its Thaltej Gam to Old highcourt.
Hi, the Thaltej Gam package in fact goes beyond the Sabarmati river – all the way to the ‘West Ramp’ marked in the maps above.
yeh, so its like Thaltej Gam- West ramp of Shahpur station, but Thaltej Gam – Sabarmati is confusing with the Sabarmati station , which is on N-S corridor
In my attempt to keep titles short, I can see how “Thaltej Gam – Sabarmati” can get confusing. “Thaltej Gam – West Ramp of Shahpur” in the title would be too wordy. If I write “Thaltej Gam – Shahpur”, then that’ll partly overlap with the UG section. Maybe I should just do that and clarify the scope within the posts going forward.
Does Hyundai Rotem is participating???
Yes – 4 bidders have qualified through the prequalification round: Hyundai Rotem, Bombardier, Alstom & CRRC
Hyundai Rotem was blacklisted. How did they qualify for JICA funded project, MEGA?
They were blacklisted by DMRC, but can still participate elsewhere.
Any update about till now abt car builder??
Nothing yet. Will update whenever I hear something.