Leading engineering firms Larsen & Toubro and Gammon India were part of a  pre-bid application conference of the Oval Maidan-Virar elevated rail corridor held on Friday at Churchgate. Both firms bought tender documents for the project and posed some specific tender queries in the two-hour meeting held with railway board officials. Moreover, the firms are expected to hold site visits next week with the railway officials to authenticate alignments.

“The alignments have been finalised and the interested firms must have already checked this themselves. However, the visit with officials will be to confirm those alignments,” said the senior official, requesting anonymity.

The 63-km long Churchgate-Virar corridor, estimated to cost around Rs21,000 crore will go underground from Oval Maidan to Mahalaxmi, because of space constraints. The line will be elevated from Mahalaxmi to Santacruz, from where it will go underground up to Andheri. Further, it will be elevated between Andheri and Virar, except stretches between Mira Road and Bhayander and Naigaon and Vasai where it will be brought to ground level.

“Change in alignment between Santacruz and Andheri has brought huge relief in the land acquisition. Now, very minimal land acquisition is required which makes the project more feasible,” the WR official said.

Other than the above firms, GMR and SR Constructions also seem keen on the project, informed sources from the railways. However, so far they have not bought the tender documents.