L&T likely to get suburban rail corridor-2 tender in a month

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The tender for civil work on the suburban rail corridor-2 between Baiyyappanahalli and Chikkabanavar (25 km) is likely to be awarded in 30 days with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) emerging as the lowest bidder.

Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE) opened the financial bids for the project on Monday.

“It will take us two to three weeks to award the work. Now the tender appreciation committee will go through the details of the offer. If found satisfactory, the offer will be placed before the (K-RIDE) board, which will decide on issuing the letter of acceptance. All this may take less than 30 days,” a senior official in K-RIDE said.

The company has quoted Rs 850 crore for the project.

The official said the lowest bidder’s quote was “more or less in line” with the cost estimated within the organisation. Most of the work (17.5 km) is at grade level. Elevated viaducts make only a small segment of the line, he noted.

As per tender conditions, the contractor will have 27 months to complete the work once the tender is awarded. Officials said there will be no scope for delay in the project. The railway ministry has already given advanced approval for the entire alignment of corridor-2.

“The state government has already allocated Rs 500 crore in this year’s budget. As for the loan, negotiations are in the final stage with German and French banks. The pre-appraisal missions from Frankfurt and Paris visited K-RIDE recently. They stayed here for a week and studied every dimension of the project. They also met railway and Karnataka government officers and held meetings with public transport authorities. The two banks have said they are keen to finance the project,” the official added.

The 148.17-km suburban rail project has four corridors. Corridor-2, named Mallige (Jasmine), has been taken up on priority. It will have 14 stations, including three elevated stations at Hebbal, Lottegollahalli, and Yeshwantpur.

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