Five firms bid for General Consultancy contract for ₹6,250 crore Hyderabad Airport Metro Link

Hyderabad, India (Metro Rail Today): The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) has opened the technical bids of EoI-cum-RfQ called for providing General Consultancy services for 31-km Hyderabad Airport Metro Project connecting Mindspace Junction with Rajiv Gandhi International Airport through 10 stations within Hyderabad.

As per information shared by NVS Reddy, Managing Director, HMRL, a total of five consortia have applied and submitted their bids for providing General Consultancy services for the project. The name of bidders are as under:-

1) Systra MVA (France) + RITES Ltd (India) + DB E&C (Germany)

2) Ayesa (Spain) + Nippon Koei (Japan) + Aarvee Associates (India)

3) TYPSA (Spain) + PINI Group (Switzerland)

4) AECOM India + Egis Rail (France) + Egis India

5) Consulting Engineers Group (India) + Korea National Railway (South Korea)

Expression of interest (EOI cum RfQ) notice for the Design and Build (DB) of Airport Express was issued on 1st December, 2022 with 36 months work completion deadline. Pre-application meeting was conducted on 6th December 2022. A total of 23 national/international consultancy firms were participated. After evaluation of their applications, the next stage bid documents i.e., the RfP (Request for Proposals) documents would be issued to the pre-qualified bidders by end of December 2022.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao laid the foundation stone for Hyderabad Airport Express Metro at Mindspace Junction on 9th December 2022. The project will be build at an estimated cost of Rs 6,250 crores ((US$780 million). This project will be funded by State Government itself.

Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and GMR Group contributed ₹625 crore (US$78 million) each, or 10 per cent of the project's cost.

On 18th December 2022, HMRL MD NVS Reddy along with officials had inspected 10 km stretch from Raidurg Metro station to Narsingi on foot & gave instructions/guidelines for alignment finalization. HMRL has appointed 2 survey teams to expedite the pre-construction activities & to start ground works of Airport Metro asap. Necessary instructions have been given to engineers to plan the extended blue line terminal station & the Airport Metro station as a combined interchange station one over the other.

According to Reddy, the combined interchange station design is due to space constraints in front of L&T and Aurobindo buildings after Ikea junction. The first two levels will accommodate Airport Metro station & the top two levels will accommodate the extended blue line (Corridor 3) terminal station.

Vacant Government land parcels would be identified near stations to provide good parking facilities. Multi-armed Skywalks with landings on all sides of junctions will be provided for easy access & to make Airport Metro a preferred commute option.

"Hon'ble CM's directive to design the project not only for Airport passengers but also for reverse commute of those who stay in extended parts of the city to reach their work places in city within about 20 minutes would be kept in mind while locating & designing the stations," said NVS Reddy.

Air passengers will be able to check-in and part with their baggage at Raidurg metro station itself and reach the Boarding gates directly at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Multi-location check-in facility at the metro station will be crucial public transport link for southern Hyderabad and suburban areas. The Hyderabad airport Express metro will provide a crucial link for the GMR Aerocity Hyderabad at Adibatla and proposed Hyderabad Pharma City.

The travelling time from Mindspace junction to Hyderabad airport will be 26 minutes. There will be a provision of half-height platform screen doors (PSD) for improved passenger safety. There will be bolster-less bogies and Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates at each station. In order to keep passengers informed about the flights, there will be a Flight information display system (FIDS) and information desk at all Hyderabad airport metro stations.

The Airport Express Metro Link will be operated by Hyderabad Airport Metro Limited (HAML).