Daily Current Affairs Article 4th January 2021: The National Capital Region Transport Corporation has awarded a contract to a Chinese company, Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company Limited, for the construction of a 5.6-kilometre underground stretch, from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad, of the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project.
A controversy had erupted in June last year after the STEC emerged as the lowest bidder for the construction of the5.6-km tunnel on one of the stretches of the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project amid a standoff between India and China along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.
| Article and Schedule Quiz | Start Test! |
The 82-km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is being funded by the Asian Development Bank and procurement is governed by the guidelines of the bank and the government.
According to the ADB’s procurement guidelines, vendors from all member countries of the bank are eligible to participate in the bidding process without any discrimination.
The NCRTC had invited bids for the construction of the tunnel from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad of Delhi Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS corridor on November 9, 2019.
Five companies submitted technical bids and all the five bidders qualified in the technical bid evaluation. The financial bids were opened after obtaining the NOC on Technical Bid Evaluation from the ADB. Of the five firms, Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company Limited emerged as the L1 bidder for the tender after qualifying on all the parameters and the contract was awarded to it.
The 17-km priority corridor of the Delhi-Meerut RRTS from Sahibabad to Duhai will be operational in 2023 and the entire corridor will be operational in 2025.
