Bids for sea link to open today

BONANZA FOR MUMBAI COMMUTERS

Ambani brothers in battle for the Rs 4,500-crore project.

Mukesh or Anil, who will have the upper hand in the battle for major share of Mumbai makeover pie will be known on Wednesday when the bids for Rs 4,500-crore Mumbai Trans Habour Link (MTHL) linking Sewari in Mumbai and Nava-Sheva across the creek will be opened.

The board of state government's infrastructure arm Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is the nodal agency for the project, will be meeting on Wednesday to take the final call on this project.

Initially, the project met with stiff resistance from environmental activists and local fishermen community.

After courts cleared the project on environmental grounds a pitched legal battle was raised by Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) which was disqualified at the pre-bidding stage, which delayedthe project by almost three years.

After the two consortiums that were short-listed for the project, L&T-Gamon Industries and IFFCO, opted out of the race, Mukesh Ambani-controlled Sea King Infrastructure Ltd was set to get the contract.

However, REL's successful challenge to MSRDC's decision in the court once again opened up the competition for the project.

The REL-led consortium was disqualified at the technical bid stage itself on the grounds that one of the members of the consortium, Hyundai, did not meet the criteria of $200-million networth in the years which had been mentioned in the bid document.

The consortium challenged the disqualification in court and got a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court. The apex court granted the consortium 90 days to submit their bid that ended on December 15 last year.

Besides MTHL, both Ambani brothers have put bids for the second line of metro rail for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd route, which is the longest metro corridor in Mumbai (32 km) entailing an investment of Rs 6,192 crore.

Mukesh Ambani-led RIL had secured the rights to develop a convention center and parking lot at the

Bandra-Kurla Complex in 2006 and Anil Ambani-controlled REL bagged contract to construct the first metro corridor for the Ghatkopar-Bandra-Charkop route.