L&T Wins Kolkata Metro Line-3’s Underground Contract UG1

Larsen & Toubro on Friday was declared as the lowest bidder for Kolkata Metro Purple Line’s 5.05 km UG1 underground civil construction contract between Mominpur – Esplanade.

This northern and final section of 15.215 km Line-3 (Joka to Esplanade / BBD Bagh) will consist of twin tunnels running through 4 underground stations at Kidderpore, Victoria, Park Street and Esplanade. If and when awarded, L&T will be required to deploy two new tunnel boring machines (TBMs) with one TBM on stand-by.

Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL) had invited bids for this contract in July 2022 with an estimate of Rs. 2571.28 crore and an unknown deadline. Technical bids were opened in February to reveal 3 bidders.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. crore)
Larsen & Toubro	2447
ITD Cementation	2473
Afcons Infrastructure	2486

IFB No: RVNL_Kol2_MTC_JOKA_UG1

Brief Scope: Design and construction of the ramp and underground metro railway works from mominpur (excl.) to esplanade, 5.05 km (from chainage 9063.00m to 14113.00m) including four underground stations (viz. khidderpore, victoria, park street and esplanade), tunnels by tunnel boring machine and cut & cover method, architectural finishing works, track works, etc. in connection with joka-esplanade metro corridor in the city of state of west bengal, india

L&T’s bid of Rs. 2447 was 4.82% below RVNL’s estimate, so a contract should be awarded in the coming months after the Ministry of Railways’ approval.

This line’s twin tunnels will pass through the Military’s Maidan area, near Fort William, and an agreement on its alignment with Ministry of Defence (MoD) took a good 10 years to materialize.

I see tunneling work starting no sooner than in mid-2025. Due to tendering delays, I see this section opening up for operations no sooner than 2029, which’ll make Line-3’s 6.49 km Joka – Taratala elevated section to function as a stand-alone line for at least 7 years disconnected from the rest of the Kolkata Metro network.

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– TMRG