After a delay in the Middle Vaitarana dam project by a couple of years, the cost of constructing tunnels for transferring water from the lake to the city has also escalated. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be paying `144.45 crore more to the contractor for constructing a tunnel from Gundavali to Kapurbavdi under this project.
The project consists of constructing two underground tunnels — from Gundavali to Kapurbavdi and from Kapurbavdi to Bhandup Complex. The cost of both the tunnels is `2887.26 crore. The BMC has given both the projects to separate contractors — Gundavali to Kapurbavdi to Ms Soma Enterprises (` 1398.76 crore) and Kapurbavdi to Bhandup Complex to Ms Unity-IVRCL JV (` 1488.60 crore).
“Due to increase in cost of raw material like cement, iron plates, fuel, electricity, machinery and labour, the project cost has increased. The cost of Gundavali to Kapurbavdi tunnel has increased by `144.45 crore — from `1398.76 crore to `1543.2 crore. Hence, the total cost of the project will be now `3031.71 crore,” said a top civic official.
The variation proposal of Gundavali to Kapurbavdi tunnel will be tabled before the civic standing committee for approval on Wednesday.
The 6.8 km Gundavali to Kapurbavdi tunnel, work for which began in November 2009, is expected to be completed by April 2014.
Due to increase in raw material cost, there is a possibility that the Kapurbavdi to Bhandup complex tunnel cost
will be increased too. The proposal will be tabled before the civic standing committee later, the official added.