4 Bidders for Pune Metro Line 4 & 5’s PPP Transaction Advisor Contract

Four firms have bid to provide Transaction Advisory Services for Pune Metro project’s upcoming Line 4 (Civil Court – Loni Kalbhor) and Line 5 (Khadakwasla – Kharadi) after Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) opened technical bids on Monday.

The Transaction Advisor will be responsible for reviewing financial parameters, examining viability of both projects, help prepare the Concession Agreement, bid documents (RFQ and RFP), and conduct the bidding process for selecting the Concessionaire.

Pune Metro’s Line-4 (approx. 18 km long) is proposed by PMRDA. Its Detailed Project Report (DPR) was prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and includes a spur to Swargate.

Pune Metro’s Line-5 (approx. 25 km long) is proposed by Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MahaMetro). Its DPR was prepared by UMTC, and it shares a common alignment with Line-4 for a distance of approximately 4.6 km between Pul Gate and Hadapsar (Magarpatta) on Solapur Road.

PMRDA had invited bids for this contract in November-end 2023 with a 2 year contractual period and unknown estimate.

Bidders

• Almondz Global Securities Ltd.
• aXYKno Capital Services Ltd.
• Credible Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
• Spine Advisory Pvt. Ltd.

PMRDA’s Brief Scope: Transaction Advisory Services for Pune Metro Line-4 and or Pune Metro Line-5 proposed to be implemented on the Public Private Partnership Mode

The bids are currently undergoing technical evaluation. When completed, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders will be opened to reveal who’s the lowest bidder and most likely advisor.

I’ve vaguely heard of Almondz & aXYKno, and there’s nothing to write home about. Almondz’s consulting arm had recently bid and lost the detailed feasibility report (DFR) contract for constructing a metro line between Bangalore’s Bommasandra – Tamil Nadu’s Hosur.

aXYKno was disqualified in 2021 by India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) for a contract related to preparing general arrangement drawings (GADs) to develop DPRs for 2365 km of new High-Speed Rail lines in India.

Back in September 2017, PMRDA had appointed Deloitte as the Transaction Advisor for Pune Metro’s 23.33 Line-3 (Hinjawadi – Civil Court). A 35 year concession agreement was signed with Pune IT City Metro Rail Ltd. 2 years later in September 2019, so that should provide some basic guidance on how long it might take to get a concessionaire onboard for developing lines 4 & 5.

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– TMRG