CHENNAI: While the construction of a multi-level car parking facility near Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road, is set to begin within a month, a similar project at Broadway has been further delayed because of poor response from the contractors. According to sources, the Chennai Corporation thrice floated tenders for a multi-level car parking facility at the Broadway bus terminus. On all the three occasions, it received poor response, forcing the local body to float a new one with modification in two important conditions.
In their present form, the two conditions stipulate that the developer pays an annual fee of Rs 50 lakh to the Corporation and gets a concession period of 18 years. Both the multi-level car-parking facilities are to be developed under the design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) system. The concession period stands for the design, build and operate phase before the infrastructure is transferred to the civic body. Since the Broadway area is slowly losing its commercial value thanks to the government’s decongestion initiatives, contractors want the annual fee pegged around Rs 30-40 lakh. They also want the concession period raised to 30 years from 18 years.
Civic body sources said the modified tender papers would be presented to the committees concerned within a couple of weeks before floating it for the fourth time.
The project near Greams Road was awarded to the consortium of MARG Limited and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited through competitive bidding. The consortium would pay Rs 46 lakh as annual fee to the civic body and concession period would be 20 years, including the two-year construction period.
A Concession Agreement had been signed by the consortium with the Chennai Corporation a few months ago. The file related to land reclassification for the project is now with Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for approval. The CMDA is expected to give it in another month’s time. While both the facilities would be fully automatic, the Greams Road project would have space for 240 equivalent car spaces (ECS), 200 cars and 250 two-wheelers. The Broadway project where the ground floor of the parking facility would be used for the bus stand, envisages 610 ECS, 500 cars and 690 two-wheelers.