Sinha said MSRDC, a nodal agency for the construction of road and bridges in the state, would examine these bids - both technically and financially- till September 7. "The MSRDC will scrutinise the experience of the bidder, the machinery, manpower, quality control and financial capability to carry out these works," he added.

Sinha said the tenders for these projects would beawarded on September 8 and the developers will have to complete them in 21 months, by January 2000. He informed that MSRDC has introduced penalty and incentive clauses and on this basis, the developers will have to pay a penalty of Rs 40 lakh per week if it fails to meet the deadline. On the other hand, MSRDC will pay an incentive of Rs 30 lakh per week if the developers complete the work well ahead of schedule.

In a related development, Sinha said MSRDC may have to pay 8 per cent cost escalation to the developer of 800 mt Sion flyover in the North central Mumbai following delays in the project clearance by the Mumbai police.

Ironically, the project which has been cleared by the state government awaits the police department's approval as the latter had taken certain objections regarding street lights and movement of commuters.

Sinha said the work orders had been given on February 2, 1998 along with the Kurla-Sion terminal railway bridge to the Gammon India. The total investment will be Rs 42 crore.Though the work on the Kurla Sion terminal has started as per schedule, there was no movement on Sion bridge work.