BENGALURU: With the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) website crashing just 20 minutes before the bidding process for 202 corner sites was over on Tuesday evening, its last day, participants are furious.
The body has now decided to extend its auction till 6 pm of Wednesday (July 8). Nearly 2,000 bidders are in the race to buy these expensive but much sought sites. Charges of malpractice and deliberate shut down began swirling around since 5:40 pm when those attempting to raise their stakes to buy a corner site were not able to log in.
Engineer SK Yoganarasimha, who tried unsuccessfully to reach top BDA officials, shot off a mail to the PM, CM, BDA Commissioner and its Secretary demanding that the process be extended due to this glitch.
"The last hour is the golden hour in such auctions. We get to see what amounts competitors are willing to bid for a specific site and we can increase our stakes accordingly. Many decide on their final amounts only towards the end," he said. The Delta hour (where in an additional five minutes is given from the minute a last bid is made) too is set to follow.
Unlike a few other bidders who called up officials and newspersons alleging foul play, Yoganarasimha feels it could be a technical issue. "With my technical background, it seems that the server may not take the load of so many bidding at the last minute. Hence, it could have crashed. I wrote to many so that we can complete our bid if an extension is given," he said.
Bidders need to deposit a sum of Rs 4 lakh before taking part. This would be refunded in case he or she does not get the allotment.
BDA Commissioner HR Mahadev said that it did not have any control over the website as it is run by the e-procurement cell of the state government. He confirmed that the bidding process was extended upto 6 pm tomorrow (Wednesday).
Adding to the woes of the BDA is the fact that a non-technical person, P Gireesha, the Public Relations Officer, has been given charge of the Systems section.
A senior BDA official said this kind of extension was not legally acceptable. "What if those who had placed their bids earlier miss this sudden news on extension announced at the last minute. They will lose the site itself. A re-auction is the right thing to do," he said.