Railways safety project to have single contractor

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has decided to give the works for its ambitious project to check track deaths to a single contractor, in order to minimise the possibility of confusion that could hamper completion on time.

MRVC announced on Wednesday it was withdrawing the tender for separate works of the Rs160-crore project and will go through the process again to select one single bidder.

Concerned over the death of nearly 3,700 people while crossing railway tracks in the city every year, MRVC planned the trespass control project, which involves the construction of foot overbridges, skywalks and walk-through decks at some of the busier stations.

The stations are Kalyan, Thakurli, Thane, Kanjurmarg and Kurla on the Central Railway, and Vasai, Nallasopara, Bhayander, Borivli and Kandivli on the Western Railway, as well as Dadar junction.

Rakesh Saksena, managing director, MRVC, told dna that executing the project through a single entity would reduce the technical hurdles.

A senior official explained that in the past, having multiple firms working on projects at various stations has led to delays, or even lack of proper administrative control.

“We don’t want a situation that while one firm completes the work at one place, another work somewhere else is held up. One single entity doing the entire project would help to speed up the work,” said the official.