The contract will be awarded by National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL). This comes close on the heels of the company getting Rs 24,985 crore package in the same project, which is also the largest ever contract bagged by the firm.
Engineering and construction giant, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is set to bag another package in the upcoming Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project (MAHSR), also called the Bullet Train project, valued at Rs 7,289 crore, according to two sources with knowledge of the development.
The contract will be awarded by National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL). This comes close on the heels of the company getting Rs 24,985 crore package in the same project, which is also the largest ever contract bagged by the firm.
The latest package, for which the company is said to have been the lowest bidder, involves the design and construction of civil and building works. It also includes testing and commissioning of double line high-speed railway involving 87.5 kilometres (km) of viaducts and bridges, 25 crossing bridges, a tunnel, 97.5 kilometres of roads, one station, a maintenance depot, four sub-maintenance depots, and a host of other associated structures.
The earlier package won by L&T involves a mandate to construct 237.1 km stretch of MAHSR under the C4 package. Package C4 represents 46.6% of the total length making it longest amongst all the packages, running elevated from Zaroli Village on the Maharashtra – Gujarat border to Vadodara station through four stations at Vapi, Bilimora, Surat and Bharuch in Gujarat.
L&T is understood to have beaten two other bidders for this package that included consortiums of Tata Projects-J Kumar Infrastructure Projects-NCC and AFCONS Infrastructure-Ircon International-JMC Projects.
Funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the 508 km long MAHSR project, will cover 155.76 km in the state of Maharashtra, 4.3 km in the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and 348.04 km in the state of Gujarat with 12 stations along the route. Upon completion, the High-Speed Rail will operate at a speed of 320 km per hour, covering the entire distance in approximately two-hours with limited stops and in three hours with all stops.
The two packages are expected to boost the order inflow substantially for L&T in the third quarter ended December 31, 2020, while the company has refrained from giving guidance on order inflows for the year FY21 so far.
During the second-quarter earnings announced by the company last week, it reported that tepid economic activity slowed down the order inflow momentum as the fresh order intake declined 42% y-o-y to Rs 28,039 crore. Order inflows, however, were better compared to Q1 as they rose 19% quarter on quarter. L&T’s order book at Rs 2.98 lakh crore remained flat on a y-o-y basis.
