After locking horns with brother Mukesh Ambani over several of Mumbai’s infrastructure projects, Anil Ambani is now all set to take on engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) over the city’s monorail project.
The RInfra and Hitachi consortium, which lost a bid for the monorail project, has raised questions on the safety standards of L&T’s Malaysian-based technology partner Scoomi.
The L&T led group is the only bidder, after the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), a nodal agency for the project, refused to open the financial bid of R-Infra and its Japanese partner, Hitachi, as the group lacked a bidding criteria.
RInfra had submitted bids to complete the project in 36 months as against the bid condition of 24 months.
The MMRDA wants to develop the first line of monorail between Jacob Circle in South Mumbai and eastern suburbs of Chembur. The 20-km line is expected to cost around Rs 1,400 crore and will be operational by 2011.
In a presentation made to MMRDA officials earlier this week, the R-Infra-Hitachi consortium has cited instances of frequent accidents in a monorail project developed by Scoomi, in the Malaysian capital of Kualalumpur. One of the accidents occurred as recently as last week.
Because of Scoomi’s track record, it was not allowed to participate in the bidding process for monorail projects at Dubai and Singapore, RInfra said in a presentation to the MMRDA. Comparatively, Hitachi, which is a pioneer in monorail technology, has an unblemished record over the last four decades in executing and running such projects.
When contacted, MMRDA’s Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad confirmed the presentation made by RInfra and said, “the matter will be referred to MMRDA’s executive committee, the highest decision making body, headed by the chief secretary of Maharashtra.’’
Commenting on the issue of safety parameters of Scoomi, he said that accidents have also been reported on the Delhi Metro rail project which doesn’t take away its status as a world-class project.
RInfra spokesman declined to comment on the development. However, Hitachi’s spokesperson confirmed the presentation, but declined to elaborate on the issue.
In the presentation, the RInfra and Hitachi consortium, also termed the 24-month deadline criteria set by MMRDA as unrealistic. It sought scrutiny of the claim made by the rival bidder.
The consortium also requested MMRDA to follow the worldwide practice of inspecting the manufacturing facilities of the bidders and checking quality process at such facilities before awarding the contract.
