Shanghai-based STEC emerged lowest bidder last year in global bids
At a time the “boycott China” chorus has been getting louder, China-based Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company (STEC) has been awarded a contract to construct 5.6 km underground stretch from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad of the Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit System project.
A major controversy had erupted in June last year after the STEC emerged as the lowest bidder for a contract worth Rs 1,126 crore for the construction of the 5.6-km tunnel on one of the stretches of the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project amid a standoff between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the country’s first Regional Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS), said the contract was awarded following the set procedure and guidelines.
“Approvals have to be taken at various levels for bids that are funded by multilateral agencies. This bid was also awarded following the set procedure and guidelines,” the NCRTC said. Now, all the civil work tenders of the 82-km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor have been awarded and the construction is going on in full swing to commission the project in time, an NCRTC spokesperson said.
Five national and multinational bidders including L&T, Tata Projects Limited took part in the bid. The NCRTC had invited global bids for the first underground civil construction package in November last year and the technical bids for this contract package were opened on March 16.
The scope of work includes design and construction of twin tunnels from near New Ashok Nagar DN Ramp to Sahibabad UP Ramp and one underground station at Anand Vihar. The tunneling work has to be completed in 1,095 days after issuance of the letter of acceptance (LoA) by NCRTC.
The 82-km-long corridor is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and procurement is governed by the guidelines of the bank and the Government.
According to the ADB’s procurement guidelines, vendors from all member countries of the bank are eligible to participate in the bidding process without any discrimination.
The NCRTC had invited bids for the construction of the tunnel from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad of Delhi Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS corridor on November 9, 2019. Five companies submitted technical bids and all the five bidders qualified in the technical bid evaluation. In September last year, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry had unveiled the first look of the RRTS train, the design of which is inspired by Delhi’s iconic Lotus Temple. It can attain a top speed of 180 km per hour on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor.
Delhi-Meerut RRTS project is an 82.15-km-long, under construction, semi-high speed rail corridor and connects Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut. As per NCRTC, it is one of the three rapid-rail corridors planned under the Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) project. With a maximum speed of 160 km/h (99.42 mph), the distance between Delhi and Meerut will be covered in around 62 minutes.