Welspun Wins Dharavi – Ghatkopar Water Tunnel’s Contract in Mumbai

Welspun Enterprises on Friday was declared as the lowest bidder among 3 firms to construct a new water conveyance tunnel between Dharavi Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) and Ghatkopar WWTF in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

This 8.485 km long tunnel by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will supply water to the central & eastern suburbs of Mumbai. TATA Consulting Engineers (TCE) has been engaged by BMC as the project’s design consultant.

BMC requires the use of at least one full face rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) to construct its 3.5m diameter tunnel. Two extremely deep shafts with a diameter of 12m will be built at Dharavi (144m deep) and Ghatkopar (152m deep) by drilling and controlled blasting method with reinforced concrete supporting arrangement such as circular well/secant piling etc.

BMC had invited bids for its construction in August 2024 with an unknown estimate and 7.64 year construction deadline. Technical bids were opened last Tuesday to reveal 3 firms had submitted bids, and technical evaluation was completion in just 2 business days – a new record among all tenders I’ve tracked so far.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
Welspun Enterprises	1989.90
Afcons Infrastructure	2045.70
Ceigall India	2068.99

BMC’s Brief Scope: Design and Construction of Tunnel from Dharavi WWTF to Ghatkopar WWTF

BMC’s estimate is unknown to me, so I can’t provide an assessment on how Welspun’s bid is placed and the chances of a contract getting issued. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.

Dharavi – Ghatkopar tunnel is part of a larger water tunnel network with another 11.61 km tunnel approved to connect Ghatkopar WWTF – Bhandup WWTF – Bhandup Complex. Back in August, APCO Infratech was declared as the lowest bidder for its construction after narrowly beating Afcons.

As shared in the past, BMC earlier this month issued LOAs for the construction of another 2 water tunnels:

• 14.1 km Yewai Master Balancing Reservoir to Kasheli (Bhiwandi) – awarded to APCO Infratech
• 7 km Kasheli (Bhiwandi) to Mulund’s Octroi Naka – awarded to Afcons Infrastructure

For more updates, check out the Tunnels section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG