CMRL cancels contract with Gammon India

Project may be delayed by almost an year

A portion of the underground tunnelling works for the Chennai Metro Rail has come to a grinding halt as the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) has cancelled its contract with Gammon India and its joint venture partner Russian construction firm OJSC Mosmetrostroy. The move, after the Russian partner allegedly abandoned the project two months back, is expected to delay the project by an year and increase its cost.

According to a CMRL official, the company terminated the contract with the Joint Venture since the work is not progressing after Mosmetrostroy officials allegedly abandoned the project in May, this year. The joint venture partner, Gammon India, was not able to take up the workload.

CMRL will have to call for another tender and appoint a new firm to complete the project, which would delay the completion by another year. The company officials earlier said that it was not able to take action on the delay by the JV, since there are not many players who work on underground metro rail projects.

The stretch, which connects various important places in Annasalai was expected to be completed by end of 2016, said sources.

Gammon India's JV had the onus to complete two packages, of around 6.4 kilometer, of which one package which had only around 300 meters to be completed, was taken up for completion with the help of Afcons Infrastructure Limited, which is currently working on another package in the Chennai Metro project. However, a major portion of the second package is pending for completion, said sources.

Gammon India officials were not immediately available for comment.

According to an announcement by Gammon in 2011, the JV Gammon - Mosmetrostroy has been awarded two contracts of Design and construction of underground stations and associated tunnels for CMRL amounting to Rs 1947 crore. Gammon India Limited has been awarded package UAA-02 and UAA-03, the two project contracts having a value of Rs 932.88 crore and Rs 1014.42 crore, in 2011. A large portion of the stretch of Chennai metro is underground.

It may be noted that the Russian joint venture parter of Gammon India, Mosmetrostroy, reportedly abandoned the project in May, this year without giving any reason to it. The Chennai Vendors' Association has alleged that the Russian firm has defaulted on payment of about Rs 29 crore and all the Russian employees of the company went absconding.

CMRL officials, in May, said that the primary contract for constructing underground tunnels and stations was awarded to Gammon India and it has to complete the project, whether with the Russian partner or not. Mosmetrostroy was building tunnels and Gammon India, stations. The cost of materials has gone up since the contracts were awarded and Mosmetrostroy had asked for more payment for the work, said sources.

The scope of work for both packages involve construction of seven underground stations at Govt Estate, LIC building, Thousand light, Gemini, Teynampet, Chamiers road and Saidapet along with twin bored tunnels covering a total length of over 6.4 KM (6474 metres), it said.

These contracts are part of the five tender packages (UAA-01 to UAA-05) floated by the CMRL for designing and construction of tunnels covering a distance of 18 km and 19 underground stations.

The 45 kms Phase-I project, which was earlier expected to complete by end of 2016 with 32 stations, was originally estimated at Rs 14,600 crore and reports have stated that it was increased to around Rs 20,000 crore.