Construction work on the Bandra-Worli sea link project is set to commence in a few months with the Hindustan Construction Company recognising Dar Consultants as the engineers to the project.

Confirming this, HCC chairman Ajit Gulabchand said, "We have started gearing up and once Dar Consultants completes the costing of the variations and this is accepted by us and the state government, construction activity can resume."

Earlier the state government had upped its earlier figure of Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.20 billion) to Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.40 billion) offered as the additional project costs (read cost escalations) to HCC, with the latter having rejected this amount.

According to Gulabchand, "If the variations (in the project) are accepted, the increased cost for this has to be assessed on the basis of current day prices and not at the prices quoted when the project work originally started."

The Hindustan Construction Company had pegged the project cost at Rs 694 crore (Rs 6.94 billion) for constructing the much amended Bandra-Worli sea link project, which would not include the additional 1.6 km portion of the throughfare that was subsequently included into the project by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.

In addition, the firm was also seeking Rs 66 crore (Rs 660 million) towards the fixed costs it has incurred owing to the delayed implementation of the project such as on-site cost, maintenance cost and those financial expenses incurred towards bank guarantees while the project was on hold for three years.

A company spokesperson said, "The original scope of the project (pegged at Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion)) was for an eight-lane (3.7 km) sea link. This was subsequently changed into an eight-lane sea link up to Worli, including an additional 1.6 km tract on the proposed throughfare on the sea portion, with changes in the foundation and a 660 metre link from land."

"This design underwent further changes from MSRDC which then sought a four-lane sea link while conceding to HCC a price escalation on the original rate by a multiplying factor of 1.67."

The MSRDC again amended the project design to encompass an eight-lane sea link that would stretch from Bandra to the Khan Abdul Gaffar road with a cable-stayed bridge at Worli, changes in the foundation along with the Bandra cable stayed bridge and the link bridge from land to sea.

This excluded the 1.6 km additional tract earlier sought to be incorporated and HCC pegged the new project cost at Rs 694 crore.