Poor response to tenders again, recarpeting of Panchkula roads likely to be affected

The civic body finds itself in a tough spot once again, as it has received single bids for four of the six tenders, and two bids for each of the two other tenders.

The Haryana government has formed a committee under the Chief Engineer (Urban Local Bodies Department) to oversee the work of tenders by MCs of various districts, which will review the tender invitation and take a final call on the matter.

[related-post]

“We have received single bids for four tenders. We have written to the government to take a final call on the matter. The government will decide if it wants us to go ahead with the bids and allot contract, or cancel it and recall. The decision lies with them; till then, we will wait,” said Commissioner, MC, Jagdeep Dhanda.

The committee can direct MC to cancel the tenders and recall them, which will take at least a month, as all six tenders will have to be recalled. It may also ask MC to go ahead, but till then, the work hangs in the balance, and has led to mounting concerns of the residents who are facing a harrowing time commuting on roads with potholes.

Superintending Engineer Anil Mehta said, “We have written to the government, and as soon as they decide, we will go ahead with the work. We can assure you that there will not be any major delay, except maybe for a few days.”
On the poor response to the tenders, Mehta said, “We had done wide publicity through various media channels about the tenders, yet there were single entries. We cannot explain why it happened, but maybe the events of the past had some effect.”

The repair work of roads started by contractors in March this year is under the scanner, with an inquiry of the Haryana Vigilance Department going on into the alleged use of sub-standard material for recarpeting of roads.
“There have been innumerable and unnecessary complaints of some people with vested interest in the past, due to which inquiries were marked and many projects were marred by delay. The payment of contractors got stuck, as the work went under vigilance scanner. So, now contractors are apprehensive,” said C B Goel, councillor from ward no. 9.

Highlighting that it was after a long time that tenders for roads were invited by MC, Deputy Mayor Sunil Talwar said the contractors were apprehensive of taking up contracts of road repair work in Panchkula due to the previous incidents in which samples of repair material used by contractors were not found to be okay, and the inquiries that followed.