The financial bids for second phase of Mumbai Metro closed on Friday (February 13) with none of the seven short listed consortiums participating. This second phase of Mumbai Metro is Maharashtra Government's flagship project.

 

The bids for Metro phase II started in mid-2007. The original bid was to open on December 16 extended to January and thereafter to February 13.It is known from sources familiar with the developments that Maharashtra Government has now fixed March 16 as the new date for submission of the bids. The reason for asking more time, according to a Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority official, could be the prevailing economic slowdown. The official added that the consortiums had asked for another month to submit the bids.

 

The seven consortiums, which were short-listed for the project, included Anil Ambani-led Reliance Energy. Reliance Energy has already bagged the contract for the phase-I of the Metro, and joined hands with Canadian firm SNC Lavalin for the second stretch.

 

The other consortiums are: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries bidding with Siemens and Gammon; GE India-L&T-CA-IDPL; Tata Power-Mitsubishi-Tata Realty's Pioneer Infrastructure; GVK-Bombardier-YTL; IL&FS-Soma Constructions-Punj Lloyd; and Essar-Alstom.

 

The Maharashtra Government had estimated the cost of the 32.7-km elevated metro line at Rs 7,660 crore, which was considered very low by several bidders many of whom estimated the project cost at around Rs 12,000 crore.