BMC cancels ₹5,800-crore tender process on road concretisation

Mumbai’s wait for pothole-free roads will now be further prolonged

Mumbai’s wait for pothole-free roads will now be further prolonged. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday cancelled a ₹5,800-crore road-concretising tender process due to the abysmally poor response from bidders. The tender, the highest in the history of the civic body, was invited in August.

BMC cancels ₹5,800-crore tender process on road concretisation

Civic officials said that the BMC planned to review the reasons for the poor response, and without compromising on quality, make the necessary changes, invite fresh terms and stipulate fresh conditions. The tender on road concretisation will then be reinvited.

The civic body had invited bids for the concretisation of 400 km of roads in the city at an estimated cost of ₹5,806 crore on August 2. It had floated five separate tenders for the upgradation and improvement of roads. Three tenders were floated for the western suburbs and one tender each was floated for the island city and the eastern suburbs. There were 15 conditions stipulated in the tenders.

According to the eligibility clauses mentioned in the August tender document, the BMC had stated that contractors must have experience in civil engineering road works on the state and national highways. It had also mentioned that joint ventures or consortium models of work would not be allowed in the tenders, and single bidders would need to carry out works as well as pay for manpower and logistics. These clauses were stipulated to keep local contractors away from the bidding process.

The BMC’s raising the bar on eligibility clauses was because it wanted big-ticket infrastructure firms, with rich experience in road and civil engineering works to participate. The sole objective of the August tender was to ensure that new companies participated in the bidding.

The BMC regularly receives flak for craters on the roads during the monsoon and had floated the concretisation tender, as cement-concrete, in its experience, rarely developed craters. The richest civic body in the country had claimed that it was a huge step towards making roads in the city pothole-free in the next two years.

The road upgradation tenders also included works like construction of underground ducts for utility lines, soak pits for water percolation and appointment of an agency for quality control and CCTV. The contractors were expected to complete the road works within 24 months, excluding the monsoon months, but the cancelling of the tender process will further delay the works.

Mumbai already has about 1,000 km of concrete roads and more than 236.58 km of concrete roads are being constructed in FY 22-23 at a cost of ₹2,200 crore.

The BMC had proposed to construct more than 400 km of cement-concrete roads this year and another 423 km of roads next year.