Two weeks after terminating contracts of firms working on the DN Nagar to Mankhurd metro corridor, MMRDA has started the process to appoint new contractors to finish the pending work. The 23.5 km Metro-2B corridor which will have 22 stations is expected to be completed by November 2022.
The deadline to complete work will not be pushed ahead, MMRDA said in a statement. The work contract on the metro stations, a viaduct and a metro car depot in Mandalay at Mankhurd was originally awarded to a joint venture of MBZ-RCC and to Simplex Infrastructure. The contract was terminated on February 4 due to non-completion of work.
Now, three tenders have been floated for which the contract had been terminated, MMRDA’s joint project director (public relations), B G Pawar, said on Wednesday. “It was cancelled as they had barely been able to execute the work,” he said. “The deadline for the project will not be pushed ahead as the contractors will be appointed in 45 days.” The first work contract of Rs 521 crore for the 5.9 km-long elevated lines, including six stations, had been awarded to the MBZ-RCC joint venture. It was able to complete only 4.48% of work in 30 months against a target of 60%.
MMRDA has now floated fresh tenders for this package worth Rs 475 crore. The second contract for a depot in Mankhurd had been awarded to the same joint venture which completed only 7% of work since its appointment in January 2018. At least 50% of the task should have been finished on the depot.
The third job was to design and construct 12-km long viaduct and eleven elevated stations and this contract had been awarded to Simplex Infrastructure for Rs 1,080 crore in January 2018. The company had managed to wrap up only 5% of the task as against the expected 65%.