MMRDA terminates contracts for Metro Line 2B over delays

Work had come to halt for last few months, less than 10% completed since 2018

Hitting a hurdle: The Metro 2B construction site at Santacruz.

The recent decision of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to terminate the contract of Simplex Infrastructures for Metro Line 7 over project delays has put the future of another Metro corridor in jeopardy — Metro 2B which is being built from DN Nagar in Andheri to Mandale in Mankhurd.

The MMRDA has now terminated the Metro 2B contract of Simplex Infrastructure, which started work in November 2018 on a 12-km-long viaduct from DN Nagar to Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), and 11 stations.

The authority has also served termination notices to M/s RCC-MBZ, which was executing the section of the corridor between BKC MTNL and Chembur, and the car depot for the corridor at Mandale.

“MMRDA is extremely serious about completing projects on time and hence is not going to spare any contracting agency to delay the project. We gave [a] long rope to these agencies and after following all procedures we have terminated their contracts,” R.A. Rajeev, Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, said.

MMRDA terminated the Metro 7 contract citing delays and has encashed bank guarantee of nearly ₹35 crore. Sources said it is working out the modalities to terminate the contracts for Metro 2B and encash the bank guarantee of around ₹100 crore.

Senior officials, on condition of anonymity, said work on both sections had come to a halt over the last four to five months and the contractors had been issued several notices and letters about the slow pace of work and non-payment of dues. Simplex had completed only around 5% of the work, while RCC-MBZ had completed around 4% of the viaduct and 6% of the carshed work since 2018.

The corridor is expected to be commissioned by 2022. “In terms of meeting the deadline, there should be no issue if we get a good contractor. Work between Chembur and Mankhurd is running on time,” an official said.

The MMRDA has floated tenders for the balance work of Metro 7, which it aims to open by December 2020. In the scope of work, the tender states the “part design and construction of balance works of four elevated stations of package 1, Line 7”. The four Metro stations are Andheri Metro (East), Shankarwadi, JVLR station and Mahanand, and the work includes the viaducts.