Tata-Daewoo lowest bidder in MTHL project

Tata Projects Ltd (TPL) has announced that its joint venture with Daewoo of Korea has been declared the lowest bidder in two packages of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project.

The consortium quoted a total of Rs 12,951 crore for these two packages; however, it cannot be awarded more than one of these. 

However, a decision on placing the contract with the consortium is likely to be delayed, as these bid quotes are about 15 per cent higher than what was estimated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

"It is a landmark mega infrastructure project in heavy civil engineering, as it entails bridge construction of approximately 18 km in the sea and four km on land," TPL stated.

The project is split in three packages. The TPL-Daewoo venture had participated in two of these, covering the sea part of the bridge, and was declared lowest bidder in both. According to the bidding contract, only one package can be awarded to the consortium. The other bidders whose financial bid was opened were L&T-IHI, HCC-SK E&C and ITD-Simplex-SMCC.

The first MTHL package for which TPL-Daewoo is the lowest bidder involves construction of a 10.38-km bridge section across the Mumbai Bay, including Sewri Interchange. This is for 7,339 crore. The second package, for which it is also the lowest, includes construction of a 7.8-km bridge across the Bay, including Shivaji Nagar Interchange. For this, the Tata consortium bid Rs 5,612 crore.

MTHL is to connect Mumbai with Navi Mumbai across the sea and is seen as an important project to decongest the metropolis. The first two packages are sea-bridge components, while the third is construction of a road up to Chirle in Raigad district.