Chinese firm given contract worth Rs 1,126 crore for Delhi-Meerut rail tunnel even as LAC standoff continues

Even as India continues to face aggression by China along the LAC and the Indian Army is engaged in a standoff with the Chinese PLA for the last 8 months, the Modi government has awarded the contract to construct a 5.6-kilometre underground stretch for the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project to a Shanghai-based company.

NH had reported in June 2020 that the contract, worth Rs 1,126 crore, was awarded to Chinese multinational construction company Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd. (STEC) for the construction of the underground stretch after the firm emerged as the lowest bidder for the construction of the tunnel.

However, an official announcement to this effect was made recently by the government, reported PTI.

STEC will construct the underground stretch from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad.

The NCRTC, which is executing the country’s first Regional Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS), said the contract was awarded following the set procedure and guidelines.

“Approvals have to be taken at various levels for bids that are funded by multilateral agencies. This bid was also awarded following the set procedure and guidelines. Now, all the civil work tenders of the 82-km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor have been awarded and the construction is going on in full swing to commission the project in time,” an NCRTC spokesperson said.

The 82-km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and procurement is governed by the guidelines of the bank and the government.

According to the ADB’s procurement guidelines, vendors from all member countries of the bank are eligible to participate in the bidding process without any discrimination.

The NCRTC had invited bids for the construction of the tunnel from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad of Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor on November 9, 2019.

Five companies submitted technical bids and all the five bidders qualified in the technical bid evaluation.

Of the five firms, Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company Limited emerged as the L1 bidder for the tender after qualifying on all the parameters and the contract was awarded to it.

In September last year, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry had unveiled the first look of the RRTS train, the design of which is inspired by Delhi’s iconic Lotus Temple. It can attain a top speed of 180 kilometres per hour on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor.

According to the ministry, with a radiating stainless steel outer body, the aerodynamic RRTS trains will be lightweight and fully air-conditioned.

The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is the first RRTS corridor being implemented in the country. The time to commute from Delhi to Meerut will be reduced to less than an hour from the current three-four hours by road, an official said.