The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has appointed M/s Frischmann Prabhu India as a consultant to review its ambitious '12,000-crore Mumbai coastal road project.
The civic body had received interest from five companies from India and abroad for this project. While three of them were found non-responsive, M/s Frischmann Prabhu India bid lower than M/s HaskoningDHV India to grab the project.
The consultant needs to conduct peer review, evaluate the draft detailed project report (DPR) and bid process management for the coastal road project.
The BMC had already appointed STUP Consultants and E&Y who have submitted DPR. The report was made available for public suggestions and objections, for which the civic body received 779 views from individuals and agencies. Environmentalists, urban planning experts and the fishermen community have taken serious objections to the project saying that it will adversely impact marine life.
“The coastal road project is not only an important project in Mumbai, but also in the country. The structural design of this project is of very complex nature. Looking at the complexity, enormity and huge cost involved, we need to review the DPR from an international standard consultant,” said a senior civic official.
The BMC will pay a consultant fee of '2.44 crore to M/s Frischmann Prabhu India for a period of six months. The firm is a part of Pell Frischmann, a well-known international consulting engineering firm based in UK. The firm provides consultancy services in planning, design, engineering and project management across a variety of sectors.
The 35.6-km coastal road will include 10 km underground tunnels at two locations — beginning from Nariman Point to Priyadarshni Park and another from Juhu to Versova beach. The BMC has decided to construct the tunnels in the sea, as against the original plan to build them under the beaches. The coastal road will also include 22 interchanges – entry and exit points – and lanes dedicated to the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), so that the stretch can serve modes of mass transport too.
