Ahmedabad consortium may bag eastern waterfront design work

A consortium led by Ahmedabad-based HCP Design, Planning and Management on Wednesday emerged as the lowest bidder for preparing a detailed master plan for the development of Mumbai's eastern waterfront.

The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) is looking to tap the immense potential for having a waterfront site akin to New York City, Singapore or Hong Kong, for which it had floated bids seeking concept ideas.

"Bimal Patel's HCP Design, Planning and Management (Ahmedabad) in a joint venture with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Kolkata) and Unity Consultants (Pune) are the lowest bidders for the project at Rs9 crore," said Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman of MbPT.

A formal nod of appointment of the consortium from the Board of MbPT is likely to come in by December 10.

Designs and financial proposals were submitted by six consortia or bidders.

As part of the overall vision, a master plan for township development on 500 hectares of port land will be prepared. It will take a year for the ground work to commence and another three to four years for the first phase of Port Land Development to be ready.