Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has said that Scomi Engineering, based in Malaysia, is not eligible to bid for the operations of the monorail Chembur-Jacob Circle corridor that has been in the news since its inception in 2014 for frequent breakdowns.
The MMRDA has said that it has set certain terms and conditions that make the current operator, Scomi Engineering, ineligible to bid for Monorail operations.
According to a senior MMRDA official, “we maintained certain terms and conditions in the offer announced for the appointment of a new monorail operator, which makes Scomi Engineering ineligible to participate in the tender process. Scomi Engineering has not maintained the monorail of Mumbai satisfactorily and we are not willing to have Scomi on board for the monorail in the future. ”
The MMRDA recently submitted offers for the third time to designate a new operator since the current operator’s contract expires in February 2018, in which five companies, including Scomi Engineering, have now shown interest in managing Monorail by participating in the pre-session meeting, bidding.
The MMRDA official added: “We received a response from five companies, including Scomi Engineering, that showed interest in managing the monorail.” Scomi representatives present at the pre-bid meeting also requested to relax some conditions to be eligible for the process. We have not made a decision to relax these conditions, but we are not in the mood to have Scomi on board. ”
Four other companies that participated in the pre-bid meeting are Reliance Infrastructure, IL & FS, SMRT Corporation, based in Singapore, and another called BVQ, MMRDA officials said.
Meanwhile, an email inquiry sent to Scomi Engineering did not give any response until the time of going to the press. Text messages sent to Stanislaus Roshan Anthonysamy, Scomi’s representative in India also remained unanswered.
The first phase of the monorail between Chembur and Wadala was put into operation in 2014, but was temporarily suspended in November 2017 after an empty Monorail wagon was set on fire.
Since the first phase of the monorail was commissioned, he has been in the news for constant breakdowns in the rakes.
