Tata and Ambanis among bidders for sealink

The first ever sealink in the country may be taking a long time to be built, but the excitement in the infrastructure industry over the project does not seem to be dying down.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) received a good response with many bidders interested in constructing the next connection from the Bandra-Worli Sealink to Haji Ali. Around 20 bidders have purchased the bid boxes and are keen to build the 3.6 km long connection.

At a time when the real estate industry is going through one of the worst recessions, the infrastructure sector seems to be going great guns. Though the construction of the sealink has seen many disputes between the state government and Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), the big-wigs of the infrastructure industry from all over the world have expressed interest in constructing the next phase of the sealink, said a senior MSRDC official.

The public works (public undertakings) minister Anil Deshmukh said this second phase of the Western Freeway, connecting Bandra to Haji Ali would not be delayed like the first one.

“This freeway with four lanes on each side should not have any trouble as there is no question of any litigation” he said. He added that the sealink would go till National Sports Club of India at Haji Ali.

The big names interested in the second phase, costing about Rs1,100 crore are Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure, the infrastructure wing of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, Hindustan Construction Company with the Korean giant Samsung, Gammon India with a big infrastructure company from Spain, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd., Indian Road Builders (in charge of maintaining the Mumbai-Pune Expressway), India Bulls and Mitas (the infrastructure wing of Satyam).

The bids are expected to be received till the mid-October and the construction would commence either from May or October 2009, said a senior MSRDC official. The bridge would take three and a half years to complete.

However, the government is still not sure about the third phase of the Western Freeway, which connects Haji Ali to Nariman Point.

There is a plan to extend the Worli-Haji Ali Link till Priyadarshani Park at Nepean Sea Road, from where there are two ways of extending it till Nariman Point. One is to build an underground tunnel at Malabar Hill. The other is to build cut and curve tunnels (a method in which there is no disturbance at the surface) under Marine Drive.

At present, a team of experts from Arup OBE, a British consultancy and CES, an Indian consultancy, are in the process of submitting a preliminary feasibility report.