Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has invited tenders for operation and maintenance of the the country's first monorail corridor as the contract of the existing operator Scomi Engineering expired in February.
This is the second time that the Authority has invited bids for the contract as the operators were not willing to pay the earnest money deposit (EMD) fees of Rs 5 crore demanded by MMRDA.
In January, MMRDA invited Request For Proposal for operation and maintenance services for the 8.9-km monorail from Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk to Chembur for a period of 10 years.
"Since the bidders had raised certain issues regarding the EMD quoted by us, we had to re-tender the contract and now the amount is reduced to around Rs one crore," MMRDA Additional Metropolitan Commissioner - II Sanjay Khandare said.
As per the tender document, the cost of the RFP document is reduced to Rs 1.18 crore, which the bidders will have to pay online, including GST of 18 per cent.
When asked why it did not renew the contract with Scomi, another MMRDA official said, "currently, the MMRDA pays the company Rs 3,131 for every trip that the monorail makes. However, since they demanded almost double the amount, we did not renew it."
The official further said the new rates will now be determined as per the market prices prevalent currently.
MMRDA is currently operating only four rakes out of the 10 in its fleet as tyres of most of them have to be replaced.
The Phase-II (10.6km) of monorail between Wadala and Jacob Circle is likely to start by the end of the year.
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