Nine Indian companies have shown their interest in constructing the 19-km Metro project on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) between Central Silk Board and KR Puram. Divided into two parts for speedier construction, the first package received six bids while the second package surprisingly received a total of eight bids.
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), which opened the bids on Friday, (13th March 2020) last week, is said to be happy with the number of construction companies participating in the bids.
The first package involves construction of 9.85-km Metro line consisting six elevated Metro stations, namely, Central Silk Board, HSR layout, Agara, Ibbalur, Bellandur and Kadubeesanahalli. The BMRCL has also included construction of loops, ramps for road flyover at Central Silk Board junction with an approximate length of 2.84-km. It’s estimated to cost Rs 731.18 crore.
The Second Package on other hand involves construction of 9.7-km Metro Line consisting of seven elevated metro stations, namely, Kodibeesanahalli, Marathahalli, ISRO, Doddanekundi, DRDO sports complex, Saraswathi Nagar and K R Puram including 1.09-km link line to Baiyappanahalli Depot. It’s estimated to cost Rs 594.25 crore.
While five companies have participated in both the packages, firms such as ITD Cementation India and Bengaluru-based Shankaranarayana Constructions Pvt Ltd have stayed away from the second package as it including additional work of building a flyover at the busy junction. Sunway Construction and Bengaluru-based Vijay Nirman Co Pvt Ltd (Joint Venture) did not bid for the second package.
Surprisingly, many companies that were part of Namma Metro’s past and present construction projects have not participated in the bids at all. That includes IL&FS, Soma infrastructure, Simplex Infrastructure, URC Construction, HCC and Dilip Buildcon among others. A majority of these companies except Dilip Buildcon are struggling to complete their existing projects on time due to various factors.