Japan, Korea, German firms bid for Chennai Metro project – Times of India

CHENNAI: Seven consortia including top railroad construction and consultancy firms from Europe, US, Japan and Korea have shown interest to work as a general consultant for the construction of Chennai Metro’s 26.1km corridor-4 in phase-2 from Light House to Poonamallee bypass linking the city’s core areas with the developing suburbs.
Japan’s Nippon Koei Co Ltd, Korea Rail Network Authority owned by the South Korea government, U S-based AECOM Asia Company, France’s Systra and Egis Rail, Germany’s DB Engineering and Consulting GmbH, and Rites Ltd owned by Government of India submitted tenders for the general consultant contract when CMRL opened technical bids on Tuesday. All these companies have a joint venture with Indian companies while a few also have a joint venture with other global firms.
The chosen consultant will begin providing expertise from January 2021. The consultancy service is funded by China-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which will provide a loan of around Rs 2700 crores for construction of a part of corridor 4. General consultants will provide expertise for faster construction without compromising on quality or safety. This includes, coordinating with detailed design consultants and others, floating tenders for various works and bringing in foreign contractors if needed.
The 26.1km corridor from lighthouse to Poonamallee will have 30 stations, including 12 underground, and will connect Mylapore, Nandanam, T Nagar, Kodambakkam and Vadapalani with fast developing areas in the west suburbs that are poorly linked by public transport such as Valsarvakkam, Porur, Kattupakkam, Karayan Chavadi, Poonamallee and Poonamallee bypass. It is also called the orbital corridor as it links all corridors of 45km phase-1 and 118.9km phase-2.
Cmrl had floated tenders for construction of part of corridor-4 from Power House to Porur junction and from Porur Junction to Poonamallee bypass, which are in different stages of bidding process.
Last week, four bidders including Larsen and Toubro Limited, Tata Projects Ltd , Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co (Singapore) Pte Ltd-Who Hup Pte Ltd joint venture, and Turkey-based Gulemark Agir Sanayi Insaat ve Taahhut AS submitted bids for construction of two packages consisting of a total of 20km underground section from Venugopal Nagar near Madhavaram to Kellys station and from Kellys station to Taramani Road junction. These stretches are part of the 52km priority corridor, which will be built first.
In January this year, three firms — Nippon Koei, Aarvee Associates and Balaji Railroad Systems Private Limited — were given contract for consultancy work for the 52km priority corridor, funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency, from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur and Madhavaram to CMBT covering two corridors.