Old wine in a new bottle

- Poor response to the last two tenders of Rs 50 crore prompted civic administration to take a new decision.

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, July 15:

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which had floated two tenders, each valuing Rs 50 crore, to construct 81 roads in the city, could not fetch the expected response from the contractors. As a result, without wasting time, the civic administration decided upon floating four tenders, each valuing Rs 25 crore, to develop the same quantity of roads, soon.

As reported earlier, the condition of many roads, in different parts of the city, starts deteriorating with the onset of the monsoon. The citizens raise their voices and drew the attention of the civic administration to their inconvenience. As per norms, the AMC could not undertake patch works in monsoon, but eyebrows are raised over crores of rupees spent by AMC in the name of the patch works in past. Why then does AMC propose constructing of few new roads?

The two tenders combined valuing Rs 100 crore (of Rs 50 crore each) were invited on June 8. The tender was floated before the public meeting of the former CM Udhav Thackeray by the civic administration to give an impression that many development works are undergoing in the city.

However, there was poor response from the contractors to these roads listed under Package I and II. Two responses were there for roads under Package I and one response to roads under Package II. Reviewing the poor response the civic administration decided to invite four separate tenders, said the sources.

Meanwhile, the question is raised, what was the logic in wasting two months in the tender process of two tenders, when the four tenders could have been invited.