Larsen & Toubro emerges the lowest bidder for bullet train corridor; Wins contract worth Rs 25,000 crore

Larsen & Toubro has emerged as the lowest bidder for the design and construction of 237 km (the largest segment) of the upcoming 508 km high-speed rail line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The company bid Rs 24,985 crore for constructing the 237.1 km line for the bullet train project. In the race, L&T defeated the bids of Tata Projects and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor is being built at a cost of Rs 1.08 lakh crore with funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Technical bids for this tender were opened on September 23, 2020, and in less than one-month the financial bids have also been opened.

The tender covers about 47 per cent of the total alignment of 508 km, between Vapi (Zaroli Village at Maharashtra- Gujarat border) and Vadodara in the state of Gujarat. This includes four stations namely Vapi, Billimora, Surat and Bharuch, and Surat Depot.

Notably, the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) had invited bids for the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project (also called the MAHSR Bullet Train project) on March 15, 2019. The project is financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Technical bids were opened on September 23 in which three bidders qualified. A total of three bidders involving seven major infrastructural companies had participated in the competitive bidding. Except for L&T, other bidders were a consortium of Tata Projects Ltd. – J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd. – NCC Ltd. JV and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd. – Ircon International Ltd. – JMC Projects India Ltd. JV.

The scope of the work includes design and construction of civil works along with building works including testing and commissioning on design-build for double line high-speed railway, involving viaducts, bridges, maintenance depots, tunnel, stations etc.