3 Bidders for Chennai Metro’s Sholinganallur – SIPCOT Section

3 construction firms have submitted bids to construct Chennai Metro Line-3’s 10.13 km Sholinganallur Lake – SIPCOT 2 section after CMRL opened technical bids today for Package C3-ECV-01.

This package consists of 9 elevated stations at the extreme southern-end of the 45.8 km Line-3 which will connect Madhavaram – SIPCOT 2 through 49 stations in the 118.9 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project.

A train maintenance depot was earlier planned at SIPCOT but dropped in 2020. That has now been replaced by an elevated stabling yard, similar to the one in Wimco Nagar for the 9.051 km Phase 1 Extension project.

CMRL invited bids for this package in January with a 36 month deadline and an undisclosed estimate.

Bidders:

• Larsen & Toubro
• ITD Cementation
• JMC Projects

Tender No.: CMRL/CON/PHASE-II/C3-ECV-01/2021

Brief Scope: Construction of elevated viaduct (approximate length of 10 km), nine (9) elevated metro stations at Sholinganallur Lake, Ponniamman Temple, Sathyabama University, Semmancheri, Gandhi Nagar, Navallur, Siruseri, SIPCOT 1 and SIPCOT 2 and stabling viaduct at SIPCOT

This is the first time I’ve seen ITD Cementation participate in Phase 2’s tendering – see a list of all packages and their bidders here.

Anyhow, all 3 bids have now been sent for technical bid evaluation which can take a couple months to complete. When that is done, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders will be opened to reveal who’s the lowest bidder and most likely contractor for its construction.

This package will be financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which, besides this part of Line-3, is also evaluating a proposal to finance Line-4’s 10 km underground section (Lighthouse – Meenakshi College) through a combined $780 million (approx. Rs. 5890 crore) loan.

With today’s development, technical bids for just 3 more civil packages are now pending opening: 1 on Line-5 (UG-06) and 2 on Line-4 (C4-UG-01 & C4-UG-02). A list of all Phase 2 civil packages and their status can be viewed here.

For more updates, check out the Chennai section or my Home Page!

– TMRG