VIJAYAWADA: Ignoring the Polavaram Project Authority’s advisory against retendering, the State government on Saturday issued a notification inviting bids for the balance works of irrigation component and hydel power plant of the Polavaram national project.
On Friday, the PPA wrote to the State, advising it to either ‘abandon’ the idea of retendering or put it on hold till the Centre took a considered view.
Sources said that the decision to go ahead with re-tendering, despite PPA’s caution, was done only after getting Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s nod. “We have uploaded the notification and it will reflect on the e-procurement website on Monday,” a top-ranking official told TNIE. The bids can be filed from August 22 till September 19. The e-auction (reverse tendering) is scheduled to be held on September 27.
Works worth Rs 4,987.55 crore were notified in the reverse tendering document. The move follows the termination of the contract awarded to Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd (NECL) and Bekem Infra Ltd last month. The APGENCO also scrapped its contract with NECL for the execution of hydel power plant. The terminations were done after the Expert Committee, constituted by CM Jagan, submitted a report recommending re-tendering after it found that Rs 3,128 crore was paid to the contractors in violation of the contractual agreement.
The retendering notification came a day after PPA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) RK Jain wrote to Special Chief Secretary (Water Resources) Adityanath Das, stating that the State’s plan would result in unforeseen consequences, besides pushing the project into uncertainty.“In the emergency meeting we had on August 13, it transpired that there was neither enough ground for any pre-closure of present tenders or re-tendering... It is my humble advice to abandon the idea of pre-closure and re-tendering of the works in the best interest of the project, or at least keep the same in abeyance till a considered view is taken by the Centre,” Jain said in the letter.
Responding to the PPA’s letter and re-tendering notification, Water Resources Minister Anil Kumar on Friday said: “We have floated the tender as we said we would. The PPA, in the emergency meeting on Tuesday, raised concern on probable cost escalation and delay in project execution. It said that the tendering was under State’s purview. We have taken the necessary care to address those concerns. We will resume the works on November 1.”
Meanwhile, the PPA is expected to submit its report to the Centre next week on the issue. It will also include the State move to go ahead with the re-tendering programme even after the authority advised against it. Not just the PPA, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat too had termed the State’s decision unfortunate.
“The PPA will visit the project site on Monday and Tuesday. Then, it will submit a report to the Union Ministry of Water Resources by the end of next week. The Centre may take a call based on the report,” sources explained.