Mumbai: Bidding Deadline Pushed For The Second Time; Further Delaying The Proposed Dahisar-Bhayandar Elevated Link Road Project

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has once again extended the tender deadline for the construction of the elevated corridor that will link Dahisar, situated at the northernmost point of the western suburbs, with the satellite town of Bhayandar.

This marks the second consecutive extension of the tender deadline.

The Dahisar-Bhayander Link Road (DBLR) is an ambitious project of the BMC, which will also be the northernmost extension of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP).

The civic body had invited tenders for the project in October 2022, for which the bidding process was to end on 10 March 2023 — which was further pushed to 24 March. 

The same deadline has now been further extended to 13 April 2023, as per a Times of India report.

The previous extension of the deadline was decided by the BMC for reasons of addressing bidders’ queries.

The DBLR, being a key infrastructure project with a cost estimate of Rs 3,186 crore, has been receiving multiple queries raised by the bidders before submitting the bids.

According to recent reports, the civic sources said that they are yet to get adequate number of bids and the deadline has been further extended till April 13 now.

“The tender conditions state that the selected contractor will have to create the entire planning of this project. The proposed arterial road will pass over mangroves as well as creeks, for which creating the entire blueprint is not an easy task. Therefore, there are frequent queries from the contractors related to the several stages of planning for which we are taking time to submit our replies,” stated a senior official, as per a report by the Indian Express.

The official further added that the BMC is extending the deadline so that it can be sure about proper planning by the contractor to whom the final work order would be awarded.

The proposed elevated road is set to span 5.6 km and will have four lanes on either side. Although the project was initially planned by MMRDA in 2016, it has since been taken over by BMC.

The project area lies between two municipal corporations — with 1.5 km falling under BMC's jurisdiction and 4.1 km under the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC).

The linking road project is expected to ease congestion at the Dahisar checkpoint (naka), which sees a high volume of daily traffic heading towards Bhayander, Vasai, Palghar, as well as Gujarat and Delhi via the Western Express Highway (WEH).