The Ambani brothers are once again going to clash over Mumbai's infrastructure as the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority has decided to call financial bids for the Rs 12,000-crore (Rs 120 billion) second corridor of Mumbai Metro connecting Charkop to Mankhurd via Bandra from short-listed consortiums.
The decision was taken at the MMRDA's executive committee meeting, which was chaired by CM Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Earlier, the brothers have clashed over the 22-km, Rs 6,000-crore Mumbai Trans Harbour Link connecting Sewri and Nava Sheva. They also fought a bitter battle over a conventional centre at the Bandra Kurla Complex, the first phase of the metro project and monorail.
While Mukesh-led Reliance Industries won the bid for the convention centre, the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infrastructure is developing Mumbai Metro's first 11-km, Rs 2,356 crore (Rs 23.56 billion) corridor for Varsova-Andheri-Ghatkopar.
Addressing the mediapersons, Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said MMRDA would soon initiate a process to call financial bids from seven consortia that were short-listed in the pre-qualification and technical bid rounds.
While the consortium led by Reliance Infrastructure has tied up with Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, the RIL-led group has joined hands with Siemens and Gamon India.
Consortia led by other major corporate houses from country such as the Tatas and Larsen and Toubro are also among the seven short-listed groups.
Irked by constant delays from MMRDA, the Maharashtra Chief Secretary Johny Joseph had given a deadline to MMRDA to ensure that work starts by January 2009.