Haryana Orbital Rail: RVNL Emerges As Lowest Bidder To Build 5 Km Tunnel In Aravallis

The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has emerged as the lowest bidder to construct 4.7 km tunnel Package C-4 of the 121.74 km Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor (HORC) project.

The scope of the contract includes construction of twin tunnels through the Aravalli's, between chainage km 24.880 to km 29.580 near Sohna’s Roz-Ka-Meo Industrial Area.

Construction on the tunnel will be carried out using the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) and cut & cover method.

Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HRIDC) which is the implementing agency for the project had invited global tenders for construction of C-4 package on EPC basis in November 2022 with an undisclosed estimate.

The technical bids opened in February revealed six bidders in fray as reported by MetroRailGuy.

These were- Gawar Construction, Dilip Buildcon, ITD Cementation India, APCO Infratech, and two state-run PSUs — IRCON International and RVNL.

RVNL has been declared as the lowest bidder with a bid cost of Rs 1,088 crore.

Additional work in the contract includes installation of design and installation of Ballast less Track (excluding supply of rails), commissioning of general electrical services and construction of embankment and minor bridges.

About Tunnel

The tunnel proposed lies in Delhi Ridge.

Delhi ridge constitutes northernmost extension of the Aravalli range in the form of two ridges, i.e. Sohna ridge in Haryana, nearly 45 km from Delhi, and west of it is Harachandpur ridge also known as Delhi ridge, which has become famous for its environmental importance to this region.

The total tunnel length is 4.7 km, out of which 1.1 km of tunnel will be within the rock mass and 2.9 km will run through soil and remaining 0.7 km will be Cut Cover type structure.

Decongesting NCR

HORC is a new electrified double broad-gauge (BG) rail line connecting Harsana Kalan (Sonipat) and Asaoti (Palwal) in Haryana through 17 stations along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)/Western Peripheral Expressway.

HORC Project Alignment

The Orbital Rail Corridor is a crucial infrastructure project to decongest existing IR network in the National Capital Region (NCR) area.

The project will decongest Delhi by diverting passenger and freight traffic not originated or destined for Delhi.

The foundation stone of the project was laid on 27 October 2022 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is expected to be ready by FY 2025-26.

One Contract Awarded

HRIDC has so far awarded only one major civil contract.

The contract to construct the 5.9 km C1 Priority (Manesar-Patli Station) section of the project was awarded to KCC Buildcon in May 2022 which won the project with a bid of Rs 158.16 crore.

Earlier this month, PNC Infratech was declared as the lowest bidder with a bid cost of Rs 771.46 crore to construct the 25.92 km Package C-23 of the HORC project.