HCC – Tata JV Wins Indore Metro’s IN-05R Underground Contract

Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. – Tata Projects Ltd. (HCC – TPL Indore Metro JV) was today declared as the lowest bidder for the civil construction contract of Indore Metro Yellow Line‘s underground section by Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MPMRCL).

8.626 km long underground Package IN-05R will connect a ramp east of Indore Railway Station with a ramp west of Indore’s Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport with twin tunnels and 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 had originally invited bids for this contract in February 2024 under package IN-05, then cancelled and immediately re-invited bids under IN-05R with a Rs. 2550 crore estimate and 4 year deadline.

Technical bids were opened in November 2024 to reveal 6 bidders. Among them, Afcons – Sam India JV and ITD Cementation India were disqualified as their technical bids were substantially non-responsive to the tender’s conditions. This comes as a surprise to me (and everyone else in the tunneling world) and I imagine they must have screwed up the paperwork to demonstrate sufficient work experience.

IN-05R’s Financial Bids

Firm	Bid (Rs. Crore)
HCC – TPL Indore Metro JV	2190.91
Larsen and Toubro Ltd. (L&T)	2268.00
J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd. (JKIL)	2690.00
Gulermak Agir Sanayi Insaat Ve Taahhut A.S.	2832.06

MPMRCL’s 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

HCC – TPL JV’s bid of Rs. 2190.91 crore was 14.08% lower than MPMRCL’s Rs. 2550 crore estimate, so a contract should be awarded in the coming weeks without a long financial bid evaluation period.

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.

With this development, I expect basic ground work to start in Q2 2025, actual construction work in Q3 2025, and tunneling work no sooner than Q3 2026. HCC – TPL JV will be required to deploy at least 4 tunnel boring machines (TBMs) for constructing 16 tunnels.

In the coming weeks Package IN-05R will become Yellow Line’s 6th and final civil package to get awarded – see a list of all Indore Metro packages and their status / contractors over here.

For more updates, check out the Indore Metro 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