The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is yet to receive any bidders for its Dahisar-Bhayander Link Road. The tenders for the project were floated nearly eight months ago in October 2022. However, the officials have told The Indian Express that the contractors will be finalised by this week’s end. After floating the tenders, the BMC had set a six-month deadline to finalise the contractors. However, the deadline was pushed over four times between March and July 2023.
Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) P Velrasu told The Indian Express that the deadline was pushed at the request of potential bidders. As per Velrasu’s statement, the bidders were facing some technical issues while submitting their bids, hence they requested for an extension. He said the tender is now in the final stage and the bidders will be selected in a week. The extension was also given to have more competition among the bidders in order to achieve more efficiency.
About the Dahisar-Bhayander Link Road project
The proposed elevated road will run 5.6 kilometres long. Around 1.5 kilometres of this will be under BMC’s jurisdiction and the other 4.1 kilometres will be under Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC). The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 3,186 crore. The elevated bridge will be 45 metres wide, having 4×4 lanes, and will be built on stilts. It will also have emergency lanes for ambulances and fire-brigade engines on both sides. BMC, which is the planning and executing agency for the project, is looking at having a multi-level car parking and creating a transport bay beneath the road. The link road will be passing through mangrove patches and creeks.
The objective of making this arterial road is to reduce the traffic at Dahisar Check Naka, where vehicles go towards Vasai, Virar, Palghar, Gujarat and to Delhi via Western Express Highway. Potential bidders have had multiple queries related to technical aspects of the project, after which the officials decided to extend the deadline.