MMRDA receives five bids for Sewri-Worli elevated corridor

In a major step ahead for the proposed Sewri-Worli elevated corridor, five engineering firms have submitted their bids for construction of the 4.5 km-long bridge, which will enhance connectivity between the eastern and western suburbs in the metropolis.
Urban town planning authority Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has received bids from five engineering giants comprising Gammon India, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), NCC Ltd and Simplex Infrastructure for the project.
"This will prove to be very crucial feeder link to the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) and we expect at least 20 thousand motorists to benefit from this elevated corridor daily," Additional Metropolitan Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said.

The construction of the Sewri-Worli elevated road, which will cost around Rs 490 crore, is likely to begin early next year and is expected to be completed within 48 months from the date of awarding of the contract.
The corridor starts from the Sewri interchange of the MTHL near Sewri railway station in the east and reaches N.Hardikar road connecting Worli Seaface via Acharya Donde Marg, J. Bhatankar Marg and Dr. Annie Besant Road in the West. The alignment crosses the Central and Western railway lines at Elphinstone Road railway station.
This corridor was originally planned as a connector to the much ambitious Rs 9,630 crore MTHL to make the sea-link across this bridge accessible to the western suburbs.

However, the 22-km harbour link project saw a set back earlier this year when not even a single company responded to MMRDA's bids to construct the harbour link in public private partnership mode, though five consortia were shortlisted.

The five shortlisted consortia were: IRB-Hyundai, Cintra-Soma-Srei, Gammon Infrastructure Projects-OHL Concessions-GS Engineering, GMR Infrastructure-L&T-Samsung C&T Corpn and the Tata Realty and Infrastructure-Autostrade Indian Infrastructure Development-Vinci Concessions Development.
However, the Authority has decided to take up the harbour link project on cash contract or EPC basis (engineering, procurement and construction).
"Despite the negative response for harbour link project, we have decided to go ahead with the Sewri-Worli elevated corridor project as it could benefit the city even as a standalone project," another MMRDA official said.