The Hindu Business Line : Consultant for MRTS to be chosen by end-January

ONE of the six consortia which have pitched in with expression of interest (EoI)-cum-technical consultancy for the Rs 6,363-crore 59-km proposed Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) for twin cities, would be chosen by January end.

The MRTS project has been proposed to de-congest and ease the traffic on three dense traffic corridors of the twin cities.

The MRTS Project Director, Mr N.V.S. Reddy, now on a visit to some of the countries in the region to study the MRTS projects implemented there, told Business Line that the consultant thus chosen will help the Government in its larger bid process management, negotiations and help in the process of the financial closure.

The State Government has stepped up efforts to speed up the bidding and selection process to ensure that the work on the project would possibly begin by second quarter 2006, Mr Reddy said.

This would be based on the project reports prepared by the construction firms short-listed for the new public transport system.

International and national firms have bid as consortium partners. Six consortia including companies based in Canada, China, Japan and Europe besides Indian firms have pitched in with their EoIs for consultancy.

These include, Span Consultants and Semaly; Lea International, Lea International South Asia and PricewaterhouseCoopers; Rites Ltd, Systra and IL&FS; Parsons Brickerhoff International, Wilbur Smith Associates and Crisil Infrastructures; Feedback Ventures, SSDI, Sowil Ltd and J. Sagar Associates; Pacific Consultation International, Consulting Engineering Services India, Capital Fortunes Ltd and Electrowatt Infra Ltd.

The MRTS project is being taken up under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model and would be managed on commercial lines. Three routes proposed to be taken up under the project cover Miyapur to Chaitanyapuri, a stretch of 25 km, Tarnaka to Punjagutta to Hi-Tec City (20 km) and Secunderabad to Falaknuma (13 km).

The project earlier this year received the Central Government's clearance aimed at decongesting the twin cities and strengthen the urban infrastructure. It is likely that a significant part of the project would be funded by the Centre.

In the earlier round, when the State Government invited international competitive bids, the MRTS developers' consortia include Essar Consultants, Singapore MRT, Siemens AG, ETA (Dubai), NCC, Reliance Energy, Bombardier, Metrail, GVK, Alstom, Hitachi (Japan) and BHEL among others.

It is likely that the selection process for the technical consultants and finalisation of developers will be completed by January end. The developers will then conduct their own route specific and traffic related studies and come up with appropriate revenue model based on the project cost and viability issues.