FRONT PAGE | Saturday, April 4, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Mantra for Baalu officials: Public money, pvt profit
Durbar Ganguly | New Delhi
The officials in the TR Baalu’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways are at it again. They have adopted a new mantra to help out a private firm get Government contract by using Public Private Partnership route.
The Ministry had recently approved a grant of Rs 75.47 crore to IL&FS Transportation Networks for strengthening and construction of paved shoulders on the 119-km Beawar and Gomti carriageway crossing Rajasthan even though it was the lone qualified bidder.
Manipulations have allegedly been made to ensure that the work was awarded to IL&FS, which was the sole technically qualified/short-listed bidder. But re-bidding had to be resorted to to make the award of contract transparent. And the Ministry officials, Ashok Kumar, Chief Engineer (PPP) and Atul Kumar, Superintending Engineer (PPP) invited financial bids from the companies which had not been qualified and consequently not shortlisted at the technical bid stage. By doing so, the PPP division, which was opened only in 2008 in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and headed by Joint Secretary PK Tripathi, defeated and violated the directions of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
Notification No RW/NH/37012/1/2008-PPP of October 10, 2008 of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that it had shortlisted six applicants to participate at the bid stage. The short-listed firms are DSC-OHL, Larsen & Toubro, IL&FS Transportation Networks, IDEB-SUCG, Gammon Infrastructure Projects and ETA-KMC-GRIL Consortium.
The same notification disqualified 10 firms, among which were PNC-SREI-Galfar, Oriental Structural Engineers and JMC Projects. As per conditions laid down in the Ministry’s bidding document, the disqualified firms are neither to be contacted nor any correspondence to be entertained from them.
Interestingly, the last date for submission of financial bids was extended on December 23, 2008, one day after the expiry of the date of submission, which was December 22, 2008. As per the norms, any extension needs to be notified to all the bidders before the expiry of last date. But vide letter No RW/NH-37012/6/2008-PPP dated December 23, 2008 signed by Atul Kumar, Superintending Engineer (PPP), the first extension was issued up to January 15, 2009 and informed only to IL&FS Transportation Networks; PNC-SREI-Galfar Consortium and Oriental Structural Engineers. Out of these, only IL&FS Transportation Networks is the shortlisted technically qualified firm eligible to submit the financial bid and the remaining two were not disqualified and non-eligible firms. It is surprising that the other five technically qualified firms were not kept in the loop about the time extensions on December 23, 2008, a day after the last date for submission of financial bid had expired.
This extension was informed to only three companies: One qualified, IL&FS Transportation Networks and two disqualified, PNC-SREI-Galfar and Oriental Structural Engineers.
Later on January 12, 2009, vide letter No RW/NH-37012/6/2008-PPP again signed by Atul Kumar, Superintending Engineer (PPP), further extended the bid due date upto January 30, 2009 for submission of financial bids and informed to one qualified firm, IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd and three disqualified firms, PNC-SREI-Galfar, Oriental Structural Engineers and JMC Projects.
The financial bids received from disqualified firms, JMC Projects was opened on January 30, 2009 along with IL& FS Transportation Networks to exclude the possibility of cancelling the tender as single bids are not allowed by the CVC when only one technically qualified bidder is left.
JMC sought a grant of Rs 77.75 crore making ILFS at Rs 75.47 crore the lowest financial grant. The grant has been approved by the Minister, while this work if undertaken from budgetary route would have cost about Rs 150 crore and that too without any toll levied on the public for 30 long years. The average cost of construction of paved shoulders of
1.5m on either side of a road is about Rs 0.55-0.60 crore per km and the cost of strengthening of a two-lane road with bituminous layers is about Rs 0.70 to 0.75 crore per km. By giving the grant to a firm which otherwise is a single qualified bidder after obtaining financial bids from disqualified firms in a fraudulent and clandestine manner, the PPP division of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has committed a financial fraud on the nation and the public. The PPP route thus appears to be scandalous one and needs to be reviewed, it was stated.
The mystery behind not making the senior most officer of CES (Roads) as DGRD gets solved with the modus operandi adopted by the PPP division in this case as the notification dated October 10, 2008 was issued when there was a full-fledged DGRD&SS. And all subsequent manipulations carried out in December 2008, January 2009 and February 2009 in the name of DGRD by the PPP division when the post of DGRD is deliberately kept vacant points towards the sinister bend of mind of JS (PPP) who happens to look after the cadre management of CES (Roads).
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