Bid row may hit Delhi station upgrade

The ambitious modernisation of the New Delhi Railway Station under private-public partnership could get derailed with some bidders planning to go to court challenging the bidding process.

Of the 13 bidders which were technically qualified during the request-for-qualification (RFQ) stage, six have been shortlisted by the railways for financial bidding.

The list includes DB Realty which has bid with Deutsche Bahn AG of Germany, Triff Infrastructure with Italy-based Grandi Stazioni SPA, China Railways 18 Bureau Group, the GVK group, Reliance Infrastructure and Indiabulls Real Estate.

The key players who have not made it in the top six list include Maytas Infrastructure with VIE of Austria, DS Construction with Russian Railways, Texmaco with FCC Construction of Spain, Larsen & Toubro and real estate major DLF.

Some of these companies have questioned the transparency in the whole bidding process.

“With our global expertise and experience in building railway infrastructure, we should have come in the top six positions. However, we were way below in the initial list prepared by the railways,” said an executive of a foreign company which has joined hands with an Indian company. “We are now waiting for the official announcement from the railways in which we are expecting to come in the top six. Otherwise, we may consider approaching the court asking for a stay.”

The Rs 6,000-crore project is significant because its success will become the test case for the railways to open up more than 20 other railway stations for modernisation by bringing in private sector participation.

According to the model RFQ criteria, only the top six consortiums with the highest scoring marks would be shortlisted to participate in the final financial bidding. The points were given to the bidders on certain key criteria including past experience in the international arena and net worth.

Anticipating such a situation, the railway had proposed that all the 13 parties should be called for the financial bidding as well. However, the proposal was not accepted by the government.

It has been one month since the railways had assigned scores to the consortiums of companies, but it has still not been able to come out with the final list.

Now, the railways are again evaluating the bid documents to finalise the top six consortiums. Railway officials were, however, tightlipped on the proposed process.

Another senior executive of a foreign railway company, which had tied up with a local partner, said:“This is the most ambitious projects for all foreign rail infrastructure companies. Every company is willing to be a part of this project. So the whole bidding process may be questioned if it is not carried out in a fair and transparent manner.”