BENGALURU: With the tender to build railway stations for the only line of the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) cancelled in November 2023, the next round of tender will be called by February-end. The three-month delay has probably been caused due to a sudden change in platform length proposed by a senior official of the nodal agency implementing the project, K-RIDE ( Rail Infrastructure Development Company Karnataka).
With State Infrastructure Development Minister MB Patil recently fixing December 2027 as the revised deadline for BSRP, such a long delay in re-tendering is worrying.
K-RIDE sources said, “URC Constructions had quoted around Rs 800 crore to build 12 stations for the Mallige Line (Baiyappanahalli Terminal to Chikkabanavara). Our estimate was only Rs 400 crore. Since only a single bidder had qualified and the rate quoted was almost double, we cancelled the tender and decided to go for a fresh one.”
“The new tender could have been called within days. But BSRP Project Director Rajesh Kumar Singh was keen on the length of the platforms of all the 58 stations to be reduced from 205 to 77 metre. The reduced length will accommodate only three-coach trains,” said a source.
The proposal was shot down twice by previous K-RIDE Managing Director Gaurav Gupta. “It was put forward again by him at a recent internal committee meeting with Managing Director Manjula who has been given additional charge here and other infrastructure officials. It was rejected by other members. The Director now plans to place the proposal before the K-RIDE Board meet, expected within a week to ten days,” another source said.
TNIE was given access to the minutes of the meeting in which the proposal to reduce the platform length was made.
The Centre okayed the Detailed Project Report on October 7, 2020. “Attempting changes at this stage will only cause confusion,” the source added.
An official said, “The non-hiring of a full-time MD with a sound technical background is impacting every aspect of the project.”
A senior Metro official said the plan is to deploy nine-coach trains.
“We will call for tenders soon after the Board meeting. We have added many aspects that were not part of the earlier tender like MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing), facade and a few other aspects,” he said.