Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has cancelled the tenders worth Rs. 5,800 crores that were invited in August to concretise of 400 kilometer roads across the city.
The tenders were cancelled as due to low response from the bidders who blamed the stringent conditions laid by the civic body. So the civic authority has decided to re-examine the terms and conditions and will then start the retendering process fresh.
In order to make the city pothole-free the BMC has decided to concretise the roads in Mumbai. As per the direction of chief minister Eknath Shinde, the civic body collectively invited five tenders for different roads.
Contractors who are experienced in constructing state and national highways were invited to participate in the tender process. "In the last two months, the BMC has so far received only one bidder for the city and two each in the eastern and western suburbs. The bidders have blamed the stringent conditions in the tender, so we will now re-examine it. But the quality of road work will not be compromised," said the civic official of the road department.
BMC asked contractors to make precast utility ducts under the roads
BMC had also told the contractors to make precast utility ducts under the roads so there will not be a need to dig trenches. The road work will be retendered including this condition. The civic body has completed 984.84 km of concretisation of roads till now. The BMC has proposed 400 km of road work for this year.
In the currently invited tenders, 71 km roads were in the city area for which, approximately 1194 crore were planned to be spent, 811 cr were scheduled be spent on 70 km roads in eastern suburbs and 3,801 crores were to be spent on the concretisation of 275 km. roads of western suburbs.
These are the tender conditions laid by the BMC:
* Joint venture has not been allowed, also the contract cannot be transferred to another contractor.
* The contractor should have experience in constructing state and national highways.
* 80 percent of the payment will be made after the work completes and the remaining 20 percent will be contributed to the defect liability period.
* The defect liability period of the road will be 10 years.
* BMC will also provide a QR code on the barricades of construction of road sites where citizens can scan it and will know all the details of ongoing road construction. GPS trackers will be installed on barricades.
* If the road work is found of inferior quality, a heavy penalty will be imposed.
Tenders which were cancelled in last few months:
1) Development of Deonar abattoir- two contracts worth Rs 402 crore were cancelled because of poor response from contractors. BMC had cited reason that it had invited two separate tenders jointly i.e. construction and maintenance of abattoir hence they received poor response.
2) Rs 43 crore tender for the construction of acquarium in Jijamata Udya. BMC cited the reason of cancellation that the state government had given them go ahead to construct aquarium at Worli.
3) Rs 160 crore Tunnel Laundry to wash clothes of the different civic run hospitals. BMC had cancelled the tender saying shortage of land for the construction of laundry.
4) Rs 5800 crore tender for concretisation of roads, one of the biggest road construction contract of BMC'S history. Reason behind the cancellation was poor response from contractors and stringent conditions to qualify the contract.
5) September 27, BMC cancelled two tenders of construction of underground tunnel in SGNP for the construction of Goregaon Mulund link road. Many companies couldn't qualify and there was issue with the Associate Tunnel Contractor (ATC) whose company went into liquidation.
6) BMC cancelled Rs 92 crore Virtual Training Centre at 400 civic run schools. After BJP MLA Ashish Shelar alleged irregularities and favouritism. BMC had cancelled the tender because BMC wanted to relook at the virtual classrooms technology and other options available.
