Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor: PNC Infratech Wins Contract To Build 26-Km Stretch Between Dhulawat And New Patli Station

Infrastructure company PNC Infratech has bagged the contract to construct the 25.92 km Package C-23 of the 121.74 km Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor (HORC) project.

This section of Haryana’s first semi high-speed rail line will connect Dhulawat (south of Sohna) and New Patli Station on an at-grade alignment.

Besides minor bridges and station civil work on the main-line, the scope of the work also includes construction of rail links from New Patli Station to the Indian Railways’ existing Patli and Sultanpur stations.

Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HRIDC) which is the implementing agency for the project had invited tenders for construction of C-23 package in November 2022 with an undisclosed estimate.

The technical bids opened in January revealed seven bidders in fray — Afcons Infrastructure, Gawar Construction, GR Infraprojects (GRIL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), PNC Infratech Ltd and two state-run PSUs - IRCON International and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL).

PNC Infratech was declared as the lowest bidder with a bid cost of Rs 771.46 crore — notably Afcons Infrastructure got disqualified during financial evaluation of the qualified bidders.

The Project is to be constructed in 30 months.

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.

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, the HRIDC received six bids for Package C4 which includes constructing 4.7 km twin tunnels across Aravallis near Sohna using New Austrian tunnelling method (NATM).