MMRDA relaxes norms for bidders of iconic building

In a bid to perk up the interest in the proposed iconic building to be set up at Wadala in Central Mumbai from domestic as well as overseas developers, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has relaxed norms relating to eligibility criteria of the bidders.

The  Rs 4,000-crore, 531-metre tall  building is expected to be the seventh tallest building in the world.

A total of 14 companies such as Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Reliance Infrastructure, Shapoorji Pallonji, Indiabulls among others attended the pre-bid meeting on 18 June.  A lukewarm response from international firms and demands from the bidders to relax norms made MMRDA take this decision to relax norms and extend the last date for submission of bid forms, a top official said.

According to new norms, the bidders should have completed one building of 300 meters each as against earlier criteria of completing 400 meters height to qualify as a bidder for the project.

The new norms also stipulate that bidders should have completed two infrastructure or mixed land use projects under public-private project (PPP) or Build Operate Own and Transfer (BOOT) basis together costing Rs 2,000 crore as against the earlier criteria of completing two buildings of Rs 1000 crore each.

MMRDA has also relaxed the norms relating to the lead member in case of joint ventures, saying that lead members should have a holding of not less than 26 per cent as against the earlier criteria of lead member having 75 per cent holding in the JV.

"At the pre-bid meeting, a lot developers said that not many Indian developers can meet such criteria and wanted us to change it. We relaxed it a little to allow larger participation,'' said a senior official from MMRDA.

None of the international firms bid for the project eventhough bidders said that the earlier norms were only suited for overseas companies as domestic developers did not have criteria relating to earlier developments.

"We were expecting quite a few international projects, but none of them have shown any interest in the project,'' the MMRDA said.

According to the corrigendum published by MMRDA in newspapers on Thursday, the sale of bid documents will go on till July 9 and last date for submission of documents is July 31.