BMRCL awarding 14-km metro contracts to ITD & Afcons

Decks have been cleared to start work on the city's longest underground Metro corridor of 14 km running from Dairy Circle to Nagawara, with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) finalizing the two underground packages along the Red Line (Gottigere-Nagawara) soon. On the Red Line, the Gottigere Swagath Road Cross-section is elevated, while the Dairy Circle-Nagawara stretch runs underground. ITD Cementation India has emerged as the lowest bidder for construction of the 4.59 km underground section with four stations: Tannery Road, Venkateshpura, Arabic College and Nagawara, by quoting ₹1,771.3 crore in the tender, followed by Afcons Infrastructure and L&T Construction quoting ₹1,783.8 crore and ₹1,790.1 crore, respectively. Similarly, Afcons Infrastructure emerged as the lowest bidder for the 3.7km underground section with three stations: Dairy Circle, MICO Industries and Langford Town. BMRCL sources said a formal letter of acceptance (LoA) will be issued to the two firms after evaluation of the financial bids. In June, BMRCL and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signed an agreement for financial assistance of $335 million amounting to ₹2,359 crore for the underground section and the project is slated to be commissioned by 2024.