L&T Wins Patna – Bihar Museums’ Tunnel Contract PC-08R

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was today declared as the lowest bidder to construct a 1.5 km pedestrian tunnel connecting Patna Museum and Bihar Museum in Patna, Bihar by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

This unique project (Package PC-08R) involves construction of a subway connecting both museums, between Bailey Road and Chajju Bagh, by a 8 meter diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM) at a depth of 16.5 meters.

To give you an idea of its size, the 82 km Delhi-Meerut RAPIDX project’s recently completed tunnels have been built using 7.51m diameter TBMs – see images here.

This project was approved in May 2022 with an estimated cost of Rs. 373 crore. In January 2023, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed for its development by the Government of Bihar’s Urban Development and Housing Department (UDHD) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

DMRC first invited bids for its construction work in February 2023 with a Rs. 296.41 crore estimate and 900 day (2.46 year) completion deadline. They received one bid from Afcons Infrastructure in April, and the tender was cancelled in July after Afcons’ financial bid of Rs. 397.76 crore, when opened in June, was deemed to high.

DMRC in August 2023 re-invited bids for construction with a revised estimate of Rs. 426.88 crore while keeping the same 900 day deadline. Technical bids were opened in October 2023 to reveal 3 bidders.

Financial Bid Values

Firm	Bid (Rs. crore)
Larsen & Toubro	374.13
Afcons – Sam India Consortium	394.22
ITD Cementation India	426.71

DMRC’s Brief Scope: Design and Construction of Single Tunnel (SUBWAY) between Bihar and Patna Museum by Shield TBM, Fire Escapes, Ancillary building, Entry/Exits building including Architectural Finishing, Water Supply, Sanitary Installation and Drainage works at Patna.

The air-conditioned tunnel will serve as an art gallery and be equipped with battery-operated golf carts. The entry/exit structures on either side will include a security checkpoint, goods lift (service elevator) and restrooms.

Here are a few renderings shared by DMRC in the past:

L&T’s bid of Rs. 374.13 crore was well below DMRC’s estimate of Rs. 426.88 crore, so a contract should be awarded in the coming weeks without a long financial bid evaluation period.

When awarded, it will be L&T’s second tunneling contract in Patna after 14.05 km Line-2’s Package PC-03 (Rajendra Nagar – Patna Junction Railway Station) where 4 TBMs are in various stages of deployment.

As shared in the past – twin tunnels of Patna Metro’s 16.86 km Line-1 (Danapur Cantonment – Khemni Chak) will pass underneath this pedestrian tunnel on Bailey Road with a vertical clearance of 6.5m. A tender notice is still pending for its construction work. There are plans to integrate the museum’s ticketing with the metro system.

For more updates, check out the Tunnels section, Patna Metro section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG