Having drawn flak for the quality of work it contracted and sub-contracted,the Delhi Jal Board has now decided to make its tendering process more stringent. The DJB,with the approval of its Chief Executive Officer,has added new conditions to the CPWD manual for inviting bids for big infrastructure projects. In an order issued last month by R K Garg,member,water supply and drainage,it was observed that the chief engineers of the DJB have been fixing the upper limit on the annual turnover,together with the net worth of a company on a case-to-case basis,which has invited complaints and led to poor quality of work. Many a time,the company which has been awarded the work,does not have enough money to complete the work it was contracted, a senior DJB official said. Now,in order to invite a more rational participation by parties for big infrastructure projects above Rs 25 crore the DJB has added a new set of stringent conditions. The annual turnover of the party or the company shall be equal to the estimated cost of the contract for all the three preceding financial years. Also,the order said: The net worth of the company shall not be less than 50 per cent of the estimated cost of the contract if it is between Rs 25 crore and Rs 100 crore. For works estimated to cost over Rs 100 crore,the net worth of the company shall be 40 per cent of the cost of contract,meaning at least Rs 50 crore. The move is expected to encourage parties with a sound financial background to participate in tenders. The bidder is also required to clearly indicate his bidding capacity to meet the high cost of work tendered for, DJB CEO Ramesh Negi told Newsline. While standard CPWD norms shall be applied for projects costing less than Rs 25 crore,the companies participating in the bigger contracts shall be required to have a mandatory ISO certification from now on. The DJB,a senior official said,has also appointed RITES as the third party for quality verification of such contracts,while Wapcos will do third party quality verification for smaller projects (between Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore).
