VIJAYAWADA: Highlighting the implications of the State government’s decision to go for reverse tendering, the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) submitted a report on the national project to the Union Ministry of Water Resources on Friday. Besides cautioning that there would be legal impediments if the State goes ahead with retendering, the PPA also informed the Union ministry that there was no guarantee that the cost of the project would come down through reverse bidding.
The ministry sought a report from PPA after the AP government issued termination notices to the contracting agencies. Sources told TNIE that PPA also apprised the ministry of the potential issue of accountability. The PPA said that defect liability of the project may become an issue, if there is a change in contracting agency, resulting in lesser accountability, they added.
Defect liability is the period in which the contractor will be liable under the contract for any defects in the project. Citing example of four-year delay in identifying the contractor between 2009 and 2013, PPA felt that the process of engagement of a new agency would take time.