Tenders with over 15% below bid to be scrapped: PWD Minister

* New tenders to have a clause making it mandatory for contractor to maintain the road constructed by him for five years

Staff Reporter
Public Works Department (PWD) has decided to scrap the tenders receiving bids that are below the set price by more than 15 per cent. Chandrakant Patil, Public Works Minister, announced this decision in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday in while replying to discussion on supplementary demands.
Patil informed the House that if this decision cannot be applied in some cases, the department will take bank guarantee equal to the amount quoted in a bid. These steps will prevent the contractors from quoting price that is 20-30 per cent below the set price. The decision was taken as many instances came to the notice of the Government in which contractors had quoted very low price and had abandoned the work mid-way.
Further, to ensure better e-tendering process, contractors from the district where e-tender for some work is floated will be eligible for participating in tender process. This will prevent the practice of ‘outsider’ contractors participating in the process, bagging the tender, and then sub-letting it to others. Such practice resulted in poor quality of works, Patil said. Also, to ensure better quality of road-works, all the new tenders will have a clause making it mandatory for contractors concerned to maintain the roads constructed by them for five years.
Responding to criticism by the Opposition members including Chhagan Bhujbal, former Public Works Minister, and others, Patil said that they should rest assured that reforms were taking place in PWD. Already, the BJP-led Government has allocated Rs 4,769 crore for road works and an additional Rs 1,000 crore was allocated in supplementary demands also. “In the past one year, our Government has cleared old bills, thus encouraging the contractors to take up new works. On October 31, we started 1,500 works at a time in the State. These works will be completed by April 2016,” he said.
As far as repairing potholes is concerned, Patil informed the House that works worth Rs 1,000 crore would be taken up and ‘seal-coat’ would be done. Besides, the works worth Rs 4,000 crore had been given in-principle approval in the financial year 2015-16. Around 17,500 kms of roads that were with Zilla Parishad (ZP) earlier, have been handed over to PWD and those also will be repaired soon. 

(15-12-15)