Signal-Free Plan Gets Stuck At Silk Board: BBMP Cancels Project After Receiving Just One Bid

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation’s (BMRCL) vision to make silk board junction signal-less remains a distant dream as the second attempt to tender the project has been cancelled due to lack of bidders, as reported by Economic Times.

The proposed 2.84-km elevated corridor at the junction has been stalled after just one construction company participated in the bid. The proposed corridor is supposed to connect the Metro corridor from Ragigudda to Silk Board, and was to be built in two-and-a-half years.

It has been envisioned to cut travel time drastically. Currently, it takes over 20 minutes to cross the junction. It was meant to provide direct connectivity to Electronic City, BTM Layout, Marathahalli and HSR Layout without passing any traffic signal.

Out of the two participants, one failed in round one which lead to the round’s dropout. Now the second round was also cancelled because the only bidder, ITD Cementation India quoted Rs 222.93 crore which is 65 per cent more than the engineers estimate of Rs 133.54 crore.

BMRCL expected at least two construction companies to participate in this round. On Wednesday, BMRCL’s website notified that the tender is cancelled.

Hindustan Construction Company and URC Construction are currently building the 6.34-km Metro Rail project between RV Road to Silkboard, which costs Rs 797 crore and will be completed in 2022.