Pune Metro | Nagarjuna Construction bags construction contract worth Rs350 Cr

Pune: Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) has bagged its second contract for the Pune Metro Rail project and will soon start construction work on the second Metro corridor in Pune. This order is worth Rs 350 crore and is for the design and construction of an elevated viaduct on corridor 2 of the Pune Metro, with a length of 7.150 km from Vanaz to Civil Court. The Hyderabad-based infrastructure construction company, NCC, is already executing the Rs499-crore construction contract for the elevated Metro rail viaducts for the first corridor. This is part of corridor 1 from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to Range Hills.

Brijesh Dixit, MD, Maharashtra Metro Rail — the 50:50 Indian and Maharashtra government joint venture executing the `11,420-crore Pune Metro project — said with these two contracts done, the Pune Metro project is on track and work has now started on the Metro stations. The 31.2-km Pune Metro will have two corridors and have 31 stations in all. “Earlier, the station and viaduct construction contracts used to be bundled together, but we have decided to do it differently for Pune Metro,” Dixit said.

“We are look at different set of companies to execute the railway station projects as it calls for a different expertise from building viaducts,” he said, adding: “So, Maha-Metro has floated a separate tender for construction of the stations which will be the next step. ” For the rolling stock and signalling systems, Pune Metro will have to wait for funding from the European Investment Bank, which is expected to put in €600 million, and French development bank AFD, which will put in €254 million. Both banks are currently evaluating the project and are expected to finalise things by the end of this year, Dixit said.

“Another innovation we have done is the way we combined rolling stock and signalling system orders with maintenance, so instead of a two-year defect liability period we have made it a 10-year period where they will be responsible for maintenance for 10 years,” Dixit said.

“This way the suppliers will be careful and we will be assured of quality. Rolling stock and signals are critical high-technology components and we have tried this at the Nagpur Metro,” he said.

Nagpur Metro has just carried out internal testing of new tracks and rolling stock at Khapri Depot in Mihan. Chinese company China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation is designing, manufacturing, supplying, testing and commissioning coaches for the project with annual maintenance for 10 years, Dixit said. The cost of these coaches was lowest in the country, he added. The Nagpur Metro’s trial run by Research Design and Standards Organisation under the ministry of railways will be held either in the last week of August or the first week of September.