Anil outbids Mukesh for crack Navi Mumbai sea link project

“The bid that was opened on Wednesday was for how many years the builder would charge the toll on MTHL before handing it over to the government,” said Maharasntra public works department minister Anil Deshmukh. “As REL-Hyundai Engineer Co quoted that the construction company would charge the toll for 9 years and 11 months, the consortium will build MTHL,” he said.

The only other bidder, a consortium of IL&FS, Reliance Industries Limited-backed SKIL Infrastructure and John Laing Construction Co, quoted 75 years. The bridge is expected to be the world’s second longest and is estimated to cost around Rs 6,000 crore. The work on the 22-km road that will connect Mumbai and Navi Mumbai is slated to start by December 2008 and will be completed in five years, according to Deshmukh. The MTHL project is proposed to start from the eastern side of Sewri Railway Station on the Harbour Line of Central Railway to Nhava and terminate at the north of Chirle village, with an interchange to National Highway 4B on the mainland.

According to Deshmukh, REL had been disqualified earlier as Hyundai Engineering Co of the REL-led consortium did not “fit” in the net worth criteria that year. Later, the Supreme Court directed MSRDC to allow the REL-led consortium to submit its detailed technical and financial offer by December 15, 2007.

The toll charges for the six-lane harbour link would be Rs 120 for cars and Rs 250 for heavy vehicles. “The charges would be increased by 10 per cent after four years,” Deshmukh said, adding that it had been estimated that around 50,000 vehicles would use the road everyday.

The planning of the bridge, which had also run into trouble with nature lovers who protested that flamingos would be affected by the construction, had been taken care of by the state government, the minister said. “The flamingos in the Sewri area will not be disturbed due to MTHL.” he assured.