The city Corporation has gone for a short-period tender of five days for the maintenance of street lights as no private party responded to its earlier tender call which ended on November 19.
The civic body has brought down the minimum requirement for contractors from ‘licensed’ to ‘contractors having experience certificate from the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB)'.
31 KSEB sections
The new tenders were invited on November 21. Separate tenders were called for each of the 31 KSEB sections in the Corporation area. “Since the maintenance amount for a section is less than Rs.10 lakh, there is no need for pre-qualification. In the previous tender, we had insisted on licensed contractors. A section of regular contractors of the KSEB expressed interest in taking up the work. But as per the clauses in that tender notification, we could not award them the contract. So we went for the new contract as per which contractors with experience certificate from the KSEB can bid,” said V.S. Padmakumar, Chairperson of the Corporation’s Works standing committee.
This is the latest development in a long search for a solution to the problem of maintaining street lights in the Corporation area.
The initial plan was to deposit an advance amount of Rs.25 lakh with the KSEB for the maintenance. With the board rejecting this plan and asking for details of street lights in the city, including their numbers, the Corporation chose to go for a fresh tender, to which no one responded.
