None of the five consortia shortlisted for the Rs 9,630-crore (US$1.5 billion) Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project submitted an offer on August 5th, 2013. While one of them withdrew from the race last week, IRB Infrastructure - Hyundai, the other four chose not to submit their bids on Monday.

IRB Infrastructure informed the lack of support from Maharashtra state's co-ordinating agencies and the shattered confidence in urban infra projects in the state, led them to abandon the bidding process.

According to local sources, other bidders said that the uncertainty on the status of the Navi Mumbai makes traffic projections very unstable. Bidders also claim that the project needs hundreds of clearances, including from the environment ministry, what delays the project unnecessarily.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), responsible for the contract, has plans to complete MTHL either on cash contract basis, under which the authority will bear the whole cost of the project, or on annuity mode, where the contractor will invest in the project and MMRDA will pay a fixed amount annually to the company for a specific period.

"We are going to take a decision in one month's time and then it will be proposed to the state government," said UPS Madan, MMRDA commissioner.

The shortlisted teams were the following:

• CINTRA - SOMA - SREI;
• Gammon Infrastructure - OHL Concessions -G S Engineering;
• GMR Infrastructure- Larsen & Toubro Ltd - Samsung C&T Corp;
• Tata Realty and Infrastructure-Autostrade Indian Infrastructure Development - Vinci Concessions Development; and
•  IRB Infrastructure Developers-Hyundai.