MMRDA has roped in 2 firms for monsoon repair work of highways
RV and ConstructionsKshatriya Infrastructure Pvt Ltd were roped in for the Rs 13 crore project
After much struggle to attract bidders for monsoon repair work on Eastern Express Highway and Western Express Highway, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has finally roped in two construction firms to complete the road repair project.
Construction firms RV Constructions and Kshatriya Infrastructure Pvt Ltd were roped in for the Rs 13 crore project.
MMRDA has issued the tenders for both EEH (Sion to Mulund, 23.6km) and WEH (Bandra to Dahisar, 26.5km). Officials claimed that the contractors have started the road repair work from the first week of this month.
A senior MMRDA official said, “The repair work of EEH will be completed sooner since it has very less number of potholes compared to WEH. Also, we are getting several complaints of potholes through our control room. The contractors are also assigned to repair reappearing potholes.”
The deadline for the project is January 2018
MMRDA received poor response in the previous bid calls from contractors. Officials cited that shutting down of stone quarries is a major reason behind the poor response to these repairs tenders. Following a poor response to the first call, the authority even changed the tender conditions which allowed contractors to procure construction material from Palghar and Raigad as well.
MMRDA officials had also agreed to provide additional travelling cost for construction material which would lead to increase in the entire project cost.
However, the official said the project cost has not increased. He said, “There are few stone quarries that are still open. It is the contractor’s responsibility to get the construction material for which additional cost will not be provided and hence the project cost will remain the same.”
Free Press Journal had reported on June 8 that the third call for the repair work failed to attract contractors. The pre-monsoon road repair work was mandatory as it helps in maintaining the quality of roads during monsoon.