DEC Infrastructure-HG Infra Engineering lowest bidder for NDLS revamp

The JV is composed of a 51 per cent shareholding of DEC Infra and 49 per cent stake of HG Infra, the latter told exchanges on Thursday

After several delays, the long-awaited redevelopment of New Delhi Railway Station gets one step closer to reality as the joint venture (JV) of DEC Infrastructure and Projects and HG Infra Engineering has been declared the lowest bidder for the project with a bid of Rs 2,195 crore, H G Infra said in an exchange filing on Thursday.

 

The JV is composed of a 51 per cent shareholding of DEC Infra, and 49 per cent stake of HG Infra. The financial bids for the redevelopment were opened by the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA). The project will be executed in Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.

 

According to HG Infra’s exchange statement, its bid was lower than RLDA’s estimated cost of Rs 2,469 crore, and the construction period for the redevelopment will be 45 months. Industry sources said that the company was in a race with four other players for the project – Ceigall India, DRA Infracon, GR Infraprojects, and NCC. While Ceigall was the second lowest bidder (L-2) with Rs 2,270 crore bid, DRA Infracon quoted a price of Rs 2,300 crore, GR Infraprojects bid for Rs 3,000 crore, and NCC made a bid of Rs 3,300 crore, industry sources said.

 

The main components of the project include the construction of two linear station buildings on the Paharganj and Ajmeri Gate sides, an air concourse featuring arrival and departure plazas, a waiting area, vertical circulation elements such as lifts and escalators, retail areas, and other services to facilitate passengers, according to the RLDA.

  While the project was initially conceptualised as a public-private partnership, a sudden reversal in September 2022 resulted in fresh approval from the Union Cabinet, converting the project into engineering, procurement, and construction mode. However, the EPC tender following this decision was scrapped when the two bids submitted by Larsen & Toubro and Shapoorji Pallonji were nearly Rs 9,000 crore against an estimated cost of Rs 4,700 crore approved by the Cabinet.

 

“An elevated and ground-level road network will provide seamless connectivity to the station and help decongest the roads. Platform works, a parcel area, and two parcel tunnels will facilitate the smooth handling of parcels, along with parking and circulation facilities. The revamped New Delhi Railway Station will showcase a modern and sophisticated design enriched with state-of-the-art technology,” RLDA had said in October when it reissued the tender for the project. An overhaul in the national capital’s station infrastructure had been pending for decades now, with multiple governments having tried unsuccessfully.

 

With residential spaces, monuments, protected heritage sites, and high-security areas in the vicinity, the process had been caught in a web of regulatory bottlenecks, before it ran into cost constraints. Queries sent to the railways on whether it would move forward with the contract this time remained unanswered till the time of the going to press.