After having come out with tenders for civil construction, tunnelling, ventilation systems, rolling stock, among others the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has taken another measure towards implementation of the 33.5-km long Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro rail by floating bids for escalators and elevators.

Multiple sets of these elevators and escalators will be installed at each of the 26 stations planned along the route. "The pre-qualification bids have been divided into five separate packages with bidders submitting their proposals by mid-June," said an MMRC official. Apart from this, there will also be staircases at the metro stations.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, MMRC received response from companies for tunnel ventilation and station air-conditioning including environment control system work for Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 corridor.

"The entire work shall be divided into three contract packages. The pre-bid meeting saw the presence of five reputed firms including ETA Engineering Pvt Ltd, Bluestar Limited, Voltas Ltd., Tata Projects Ltd. and Sterling & Wilson Pvt Ltd. Final bid is scheduled for opening on May 27, 2016," said Ashwini Bhide, managing director of MMRC.

Although the bids pertaining to other systems for the metro are progressing well, the MMRC has still not awarded bids for civil construction and tunnelling. There has been long delay in announcing the work contracts.

As per the initial plans it was to be awarded in September 2015, but due to cost variation of the civil work there were rounds of negotiations and changes in design of underground stations.

The last deadline to award the civil work bid was March after it had received nod from JICA for the same, but once again it has not been able to issue work orders to the successful bidders.