Rahul Gandhi’s rival Adani in race to build D K Shivakumar’s Bengaluru tunnel road

Bengaluru

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi’ rival Gautam Adani is in race to build Deputy Chief Minister (Dy CM) and Bengaluru Development Minister, D K Shivakumar ambitious tunnel road in Bengaluru. 
Among ten companies which participated in a pre-bid meeting on Monday Adani Group is also one of them.

According to the Deccan Herald report Representatives from Adani Group, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Projects, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, ITD Cementation India, Vishwa Samudra Engineering Ltd, Jayashankar, Ceigall India Ltd, Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, and IRB Infrastructure attended the meeting. The meeting was held at the headquarters of Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Ltd (B-SMILE) in Vasanthnagar.

It should be noted that Gandhi has been targeting Gautam Adani on various issues. About two days back, Gandhi said “Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot stand up to US President Donald Trump because of “the ongoing US investigation into Adani”. Gandhi has been claiming that Adani and Modi are hand-in-glove. Now with Adani entering the race unofficially, it is interesting to see how it will pan out for him in Karnataka. 

However, it is yet to be seen how many of them will officially join the competition. The project, proposed under a revised build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model, requires participating firms to fund 60% of the total estimated cost of ₹10,619 crore and deposit ₹44 crore along with their bid submissions. In exchange, the winning bidder will be granted toll collection rights for a 30-year period.

The hour-and-a-half-long meeting saw participants raise nearly 200 queries about the project. Valued at ₹17,698 crore, the work has been split into two packages: Hebbal Junction to Seshadri Road and Seshadri Road to Silk Board, covering a total stretch of 8.01 km. The deadline for bid submissions has been set for September 2.

Under the proposal, contractors must deploy eight Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), each with an annual drilling capacity of about 2 km. The planned three-lane twin underground tunnel, spanning a total tunneling length of 33.49 km, has already undergone environmental, feasibility, and technical evaluations by various stakeholders.

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