UMTC & Aarvee Win MRTS Feasibility Contracts for Salem, Trichy & Tirunelveli

Aarvee Associates Architects Engineers and Consultants and Urban Mass Transit Company in late-June emerged as the lowest bidders to prepare Feasibility Study Reports for mass rapid transit systems (MRTS) in Salem, Tiruchirappalli & Tirunelveli.

Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) had invited bids for each city’s contract in February 2022 with a 122 day deadline. Technical bids were opened in April to reveal 6 bidders.

Note: None of the 6 companies bid for all 3 cities’ contracts.

Salem – Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Lakh)
Aarvee Associates	38.29
L&T Infrastructure Engineering	53.60
RITES Ltd.	65.40

Tiruchirappalli – Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Lakh)
Urban Mass Transit Company	37.40
Aarvee Associates	39.38
L&T Infrastructure Engineering	50.56
Rina Consulting SpA	56.78

Tirunelveli – Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. Lakh)
Urban Mass Transit Company	35.42
Balaji Railroad Systems	54.89

Contract: 2021- DFR for Tier II Cities

CMRL’s Brief Scope: Selection of Consultant for Preparation of Feasibility Study Report for Introducing a Mass Rapid Transit System in Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Salem City

CMRL’s estimate for each contract is unknown, so I can’t provide an assessment on the feasibility (ha!) of contracts getting awarded.

Scope for the selected consultant includes:

• To collect and examine available reports of previous studies, plans, CMP Report and other related with transportation scenario
• To collect primary transport network inventory data along with utilities within the Project Influence Area.
• To collect all the secondary information such as development plans, public transport routes.
• To conduct a review of the current situation in order to establish the existing condition and capacity of the public transport system.

As I mentioned in the past, building a heavy-rail metro system in these tier 3 cities would be an overkill. Barring the main arterial thoroughfare in each town, perhaps even a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system (like Delhi Metrolite) will be an overkill too.

Back in September 2021, SYSTRA was awarded a similar multi-city DPR contract in Gujarat for Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar.

For more updates, check out the Chennai section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? See how you can get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG