Trisha Ghosh, Pune
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) made an official announcement to the Bombay High Court on Tuesday in which it extended the timeline for the submission of bids for 2 infrastructure-related projects in the district of Thane. The projects comprise twin tunnels on Ghodbunder Road, along with an upraised road that will connect Thane to Bhayander, all of which is worth approximately Rs. 16,577 crore.
Multinational construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) had filed a petition against the original timeline and requested the change to the process, saying that there had been prominent technical alterations to the clauses given by the MMRDA on a very recent note.
On Monday, they had complained to the high court that the Notice Inviting Tender provided by the MMRDA did not have any geotechnical details of the bridge. This meant that bidders initially had only 2 days to collect these details via an amendment, although the October 3rd deadline was later extended till the 7th. According to Abhishek Singhvi, a senior advocate who is a representative of L&T, this bridge will be the largest, second only to the Atal Setu or Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, which connects Navi Mumbai straight to South Mumbai.
Consequently, Birendra Saraf, Advocate General, made the extension announcement to a bench including Justice Amit Borkar and Chief Justice Devendra Kumbar Upadhyaya. The timeline for this process of bidding has now been extended by two months (60 days).
The twin tunnels running along Ghodbunder road (a connecting road between Borivali and Thane) are intended to significantly decrease time travelled and reduce traffic congestion from the high number of travellers going back and forth on a daily basis. The second project is an upraised road of 11.425 kilometres. It is a creek bridge connecting Ghodbunder to Bhayander and is expected to link 2 major areas. This will relieve the burden on the currently frequently used network of roads in this region.
The construction work on both these major infrastructural projects is set to begin in 2025 and will most probably complete in 3 years, by 2028. These are crucial civic development projects and are expected to have a prominent positive effect on the persistent traffic congestion issues that have long plagued Mumbai city. They will also improve connectivity, which is much-needed in the metropolitan areas of Mumbai.