Blacklisted firm to bag ₹800-crore access road contract for WEH, EEH

A blacklisted contractor set to bag ₹800 crore BMC contract for access control roads on WEH and EEH to ease traffic congestion, despite past irregularities.

A contractor, who was blacklisted after irregularities surfaced in a road project in 2015, has been declared the lowest bidder and is in the process of bagging a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) contract to construct access control roads to ease traffic congestion on the Western Express Highway (WEH) and the Eastern Express Highway (EEH).

Mumbai, India - May 19, 2020: Traffic due to Samta Nagar Police takes action on Autorickshaw,Taxi and Two wheelers against the offenders who were travelling without valid permission during second day of Lockdown 4.0 at Western Express Highway,Kandivali in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. (Photo by Pramod Thakur/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

An access control road means there will be an underpass at each turn and then an elevated road.

The BMC’s standing committee passed a resolution last week to award the contract, estimated at ₹800 crore, to RPS Infraprojects (P) Limited. The firm will build an array of underpasses and horizontal roads to separate traffic in two levels at four key junctions on WEH and EEH, in the first phase, an official from the roads department said and added a letter of acceptance will soon be issued.

The locations chosen on WEH are Sudhir Phadke flyover in Borivali, Vile Parle Hanuman Road and Milan subway junction, followed by BKC connector extension on EEH.

The official confirmed that RPS Infraprojects was blacklisted in 2015, but since the inquiry, penalty and blacklisting periods got over, the contractor could bid again.

When contacted, Iqbal Singh Chahal, BMC commissioner and administrator, said, “Though the contractor was blacklisted, the period of blacklisting is over. They became eligible to bid in 2022 and they are already carrying out several BMC projects.”

Commenting on the scope of work in the current project, the official from the roads department said, “The nature of work is segregation of traffic. There will be an underpass or an overbridge to segregate the traffic wherever the congestion is more.”

It is also to bring down the travel time on EEH and WEH, allow better control over traffic at the identified locations, and promote unobstructed vehicular movement, he said. “Work will start this month.”

The tender was floated in November 2023. This project’s completion period is 24 months.