KOCHI Metro Rail (KMRL) has cancelled the tendering process for the Kochi Metro Phase 2 General Consultant (GC) contract, meaning new bids will need to be submitted, despite Systra and its Systra MVA Consulting (India) subsidiary emerging as the preferred and lowest bidder.

The Systra bid, at Rs 495.7m ($US 6m), was around 60% higher than the original Rs 310m estimate given when the tendering process was launched in November 2022. The original tender stated that the selected GC would be expected to be involved with the project for three years.

A total of eight qualifying bidders were revealed when technical bids were opened last month, with other bidders including Louis Berger, DB-Barsyl, Typa-Stup-Pems and Ayesa-Aarvee.

Systra emerged both as leader in the technical bid evaluation results and with the lowest offer in the financial bids, and KRML announced on March 23 that the group had won the contract based on the quality and cost-based selection (QCBS) results.

However, following the cancellation of the tendering process the next day, bids will have to be re-invited with an adjusted estimate.

The Kerala state cabinet approved Phase 2 of the Kochi Metro in May 2017, with the cost of the project then estimated at Rs 25.8bn. Phase II comprises a 11.2km line from Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium to Infopark via Kakkanad.

There will be 11 stations on the line at Palarivattom Junction, Palarivattom Signal, Chembumukku, Vazhakkala, Kunnumpuram, Kakkanad Junction, Kochi Special Economic Zone, Chittethukara, Rajagiri, InfoPark I and InfoPark II.

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