Tata Wins Chennai Metro Line-5’s UG06 Tunneling Contract

Tata Projects Ltd. (TPL) was today declared as the lowest bidder for the civil construction of underground Package UG-06/RT-01 of Chennai Metro’s 44.6 km Line-5.

This roughly 5.8 km civil package of Chennai Metro’s Phase 2 project consists of twin tunnels and 5 underground stations between Kolathur and Nathamuni on the mostly elevated Line-5 which will connect Madhavaram and Sholinganallur through 45 stations.

This is a contract retender by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL). In the original round, L&T was the only bidder in August 2021 and was naturally declared as the lowest bidder in November 2021. Their bid was substantially higher than CMRL’s estimate, which led to the cancelation of that tender and re-invitation of bids in December 2021.

In the new round, CMRL re-invited bids with an estimated value at Rs. 1580 crore and completion deadline of 1395 days (3.8 year). Technical bids were opened in May to reveal 5 bidders.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. crore)
Tata Projects (TPL)	1445.98
Larsen & Toubro (L&T)	1476.00
J Kumar Infraprojects (JKIL)	1649.56
HCC – KPTL JV	1872.96
DRA – Soma JV	2151.00

Brief Scope: Construction of underground stations at Kolathur, Srinivasa Nagar, Villivakam Sub-urban Station, Villivakam bus-terminus and Nathamuni with entry / exit, ventilation shafts, plumbing, earthmat, architectural finishes including signages etc. including twin bored tunnels from Kolathur retrieval shaft to Nathamuni launching shaft and ramps with U – section in corridor-5 of CMRL phase-II project

Tata’s bid of Rs. 1445 crore was well below CMRL’s estimate of Rs. 1580 crore, so a contract should be awarded in the coming weeks without a long financial bid evaluation period.

When awarded, it’ll be Tata’s 3rd civil contract in Phase 2 after Line-3’s Package TU01 (9 km twin tunneling between Venugopal Nagar Shaft – Kelly’s) and Package UG-02 (4 stations and 2 partial stations between Ayanavaram – Kelly’s). Tata will be required to deploy at least 4 tunnel boring machines (TBMs).

This is very last major civil contract of Phase 2 and will be financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). A complete list of Phase 2’s civil & system packages and their status can be viewed here.

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– TMRG