Only 2 Firms Left in Bidding for Chennai Monorail Job

By Saraswathi Muniappan NEW DELHI, May 30 (Bernama) -- Only two companies -- India's IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd-Scomi Engineering Bhd consortium and Gammon India -- are left in the running for the Rs8,550 crore (US$1.52 billion) 57.1 km monorail project in Chennai, capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. “Together with ILFS, we are thankful and humbled for being in one of the two consortiums qualified to participate in India’s largest monorail network to be planned and tendered,” says Scomi Group Chief Operating Officer for Transport Solutions Kanesan Veluppillai. It is a postive step for Chennai, Tamil Nadu as well as India, he told Bernama when contacted on Thursday. “It signals the first major global tender in the infrastructure space for quite a while in India. We believe this will see a few more tenders being floated expeditiously over the remaining year in India,” he said. Last October, five companies were shortlisted for the project, but only two were called in today by the implementing agency, Metropolitan Transport Corporation, to issue the request for proposal (RFP) documents, Scomi India’s Head of Business Development James CS Selvaraja said. If secured, the project in Chennai, India’s fifth most populous state, would be Scomi’s biggest ever monorail project, he said. The project, which is the first phase of the 111 km monorail plan, is aimed at improving connectivity in the suburbs and proposed on three corridors namely Vandalur-Tambaram (23km), Poonamallee-Kathipara (16km) and Poonamallee-Vadapalani (18km). According to reports, the RFP document would encompass complete details of the project including number of stations, train frequency and fare structure. “The tender is expected to be awarded before the end of August,” he said, adding that the project is under a public-private partnership model. News reports state that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa is firm that the much-expected monorail scheme for Chennai should be executed at the earliest. -- BERNAMA