MMRDA asked to renegotiate Metro bid

The state government today authorised Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to re-negotiate with the lowest bidder (consortium led by the IL&FS and Unity Infrastructure), for the construction of Mumbai Metro, as bids were almost double the benchmark price set by MMRDA.

The decision was taken in the MMRDA's bi-monthly meeting at the state government headquarters, Mantralaya, this morning. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh asked the MMRDA to re-negotiate the prices with the lowest bidders while keeping option of re-tendering open, should negotiations fail.

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) bid was at Rs 3,200 crore and the consortia led by the IL&FS bid Rs 2,800 crore. The ADAE has asked for a viability funding gap of Rs 1,269 crore, while IL&FS had asked the viability gap funding of Rs 1,235 crore.

On the other hand, MMRDA had set the benchmark price of Rs 1,500 crore for metro project including Rs 400 crore for viability gap funding.

ADAE has received another setback after the Reliance demerger. The ADAE group recently lost out in it's attempt to bid for the plot in Bandra-Kurla complex to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group.

A few days back, Reliance lost out on bids for the contracts to modernise the Mumbai and Delhi airports.