BDA to invite tender for Hebbal flyover on June 11

By Govind D.Belgaumkar

BANGALORE, MAY 31. The Bangalore Development Authority has decided to invite tenders for the proposed Rs.39-crore flyover at Hebbal, where the Bangalore-Bellary road intersects the Outer Ring Road, by mid-June.

The Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner, Mr. Jayakar Jerome, told The Hindu, here on Thursday that tenders would be invited on June 11. This decision was communicated to the other utility service organisations at a meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, the Bangalore Telecommunications, which would have to shift some of their utility service lines to pave way for expeditious completion of work. Representatives from the University of Agricultural Sciences, the Karnataka Seeds Corporation and the National Seeds Corporation, which may have to part with their lands for the project, also attended the meeting.

The service organisations have been requested to attend to the shifting of their lines at the earliest. This assumes significance as the Richmond Circle Flyover suffered several months of delay on account of the failure of the service organisations to attend to shifting of lines in time.

The Bangalore Development Authority has decided to take up the work on item-wise tender and not on a turn-key basis. Mr. Jerome observed that one could get better quality work from the contracting firm in an item-wise tender when compared to a turn- key project. This was the reason for preferring an item-wise tender.

He said the Bangalore Development Authority would ``prequalify'' the tender applicants to ensure better quality (of work). He said technical and financial bids would be invited separately, and financial bids of only the ``prequalified'' firm would be opened. The ``prequalification'' parameters for the tender applicants were being finalised.

He said that the Bangalore Development Authority had conducted elaborate studies before arriving at the design, at a cost of about Rs.50 lakhs. As many as 80 test piles were dug up to study soil-worthiness. The studies were conducted by the RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services). This organisation was preparing the tender document of the project for the Bangalore Development Authority.

The project would be jointly funded by the Southern Railways as it crossed over a railway track; the National Highway Authority of India as the main bridge (of the proposed flyover) would pass over a national highway; the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike as some of the service roads and loops of the proposed flyover pass through the Mahanagara Palike lands, besides the Bangalore Development Authority.

The flyover had been designed such that it would not affect the proposed Elevated Light Rail Transport System as and when it comes up. The work on the project would commence by September, Mr. Jerome said. Though the project had been designed to be completed in 18 months, Mr. Jerome said that it might take about two years to come up.

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