CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai corporation on Saturday announced the cancellation of Rs 127 crore worth of storm water drain (SWD) tenders.This comes even as Leader of Opposition and former Chennai Corporation Mayor, M K Stalin demanded a DVAC probe into the alleged discrepancies surrounding the tender process for the pan-city road relaying and SWD projects.
In the corrigendum issued by the Storm Water Drain Department earlier, ‘administrative reasons’ were cited for the cancellation.However, at a press conference, SWD department superintending engineer, L Nandakumar said the decision was taken following grievances from a section of contractors that they were unable to participate in package tenders.
“We are planning to split the 36 tender packages for the 113 works into 70-80 packages. The machinery requirements and pre- qualifications will also be relaxed. This will allow smaller contractors to take part in the bidding process,” he said explaining that the corporation’s priority, especially for smart city funded projects, is quick completion.
He said splitting up of the packages for the new tenders will allow small and big contractors to work side by side. “The small contractors will do work on small stretches and the big contractors can take up a few roads. Utilisation of Smart City funds can make way for more funds from the Centre,” he told Express.
Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan denied allegations of poor quality of work in SWD and road relaying works. “The allegations of good roads being selected for relaying is baseless. Even if there are small mistakes, we will rectify it,” he said.