Indian and international firms line up for MTHL tender

The 22-km link will be the longest sea bridge to be built in the country. The MTHL will be built at a cost of about Rs 8,800 crore. The road will have interchanges at Sewri to connect to the partially-constructed Eastern Freeway and at Chirle.

Separately,the MMRDA has also invited bids from consultants to prepare a detailed project report for the construction of a connecting road from Worli to Sewri,mostly in the form of an elevated viaduct,and a four-lane highway to connect Chirle to the Mumbai-Pune expressway at Khopoli. The MTHL was earlier being implemented under the Maharashtra State Road Development Corp (MSRDC),but the mandate was later handed over to the MMRDA. The project has had a couple of false starts.

In June 2008,bids submitted by the Ambani brothers were found unrealistic,and ultimately did not work out. The Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure had then recommended scrapping the public-private-partnership model and executing the project on a cash contract basis. As many as 13 companies had showed interest,but did not submit bids. This time,the MMRDA is trying to make the bids attractive by considering the provision of soft loans.