Altinok Sole Bidder for Dehradun – Tehri Tunnel’s DPR

Turkey’s Altinok Musavirlik Muhendislik A.S. (Altinok Consulting Engineering Inc.) is the only bidder for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to develop a road tunnel between Dehradun and Tehri in Uttarakhand.

The distance between Dehradun and Tehri is 35 kms as the crow flies. Per Google Maps, the road distance is 97 kms via National Highways NH-7 and NH-34 and comes with an estimated travel time of roughly 3 hours.

This new tunnel by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will pass through the Himalaya’s Saklana Range. It is expected to be at least 20 kms long making it the longest tunnel project in India, if built, resulting in significant time savings.

NHAI invited tenders for this consultancy service in November 2021 and expects the assigned consultant to finalize the DPR in 540 days. Technical bid were opened on January 14.

NHAI’s Brief Scope: Consultancy Services for preparation of DPR for development of Tunnel from Dehradun to Tehri in State of Uttarakhand

Altinok has several Indian projects under its belt, including the under construction Rishikesh – Karnaprayag Railway Line where they’re the Design Consultant for tunnel packages 4 and 9.

For the next steps – If NHAI is satisfied with 1 bidder, then they’ll go on to evaluate Altinok’s technical bid. If they aren’t satisfied and want more bidders to participate, then the procurement process will be cancelled and bids will be re-invited.

We’ll have to wait for the DPR to be finalized, but I reckon it would most likely recommend a drill-and-blast construction method and not a tunnel boring machine-based method.

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– TMRG