While seven responses had been received to the MMRDA’s call for Expressions of Interest, all seven have now been prequalified and will be invited to participate in the two-stage bidding process, said officials. The seven players in the fray are Bombardier Transportation India; Reliance Energy Ltd with Hitachi; Reliance Engineering Associates with Siemens; L&T with Scomi; a consortium of KPTL, JMC and Intamin; Videocon with Aerospace and Gammon India Ltd with MET Rail. They will now be requested to send in their technical and financial bids, to be opened through a two-packet system.
Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Ratnakar Gaikwad said the bidder should be picked by May.
The MMRDA is currently working on a masterplan for a monorail transit system in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, aimed mostly at servicing those routes currently not covered by the suburban railway network and the proposed Metro Rail. As a pilot project, the MMRDA will first construct about 20 km to 25 km of monorail and has appointed Government of India undertaking RITES as consultant to prepare the masterplan and a Detailed Project Report for the priority corridors. Among the first routes will be Malabar Hill to Bandra Kurla Complex (about 25 km) and Chembur to Mahul (10 km).
The monorail, which runs on a narrow guiding beam above the road, is said to be ideal for congested cities like Mumbai. Alongside the benefit of fewer land acquisition problems, the monorail is also quieter as it uses rubber whee-ls to glide on a concrete track.