Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas has asserted here on Sunday that there were no irregularities in the tendering process for construction work in Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone (AMTZ) in Visakhapatnam. He, however, said the tender issued earlier was cancelled as the successful bidder had failed to comply with certain provisions. The Minister was here to launch the Indradhanush (vaccination) programme at the Collectorate on Sunday.
Mr. Srinivas said that there were no irregularities in the works of AMTZ and not a single rupee was paid to any company.
The tenders were being called in a phased manner in order to ensure early completion of the project.
Tenders were called for the first phase for taking up construction work at an estimated cost of ₹400 crore. Lanco Infratech, the successful bidder, had failed to provide details of the escrow account, due to which the tender was cancelled.
It may be recalled that the AMTZ CEO Jitendar Sharma said in a statement a few days ago that the tender for construction, advertised earlier, was cancelled as the winning bidder had not given the escrow account required as per tender conditions.
Escrow account condition was incorporated in the tender from the beginning to ensure that money paid to the construction company was utilised only for the purpose of construction, Mr. Sharma said.
“The current tender is for phase I only and is estimated to be of the order of ₹350 crore – ₹ 400 crore. The Phase-II, Phase-III, Phase-IV, Phase-V, each phase costing about ₹150 crore – ₹ 200 crore shall be advertised in parts as the construction work progresses. The cost of construction of the manufacturing units shall be paid by the manufacturers,” he added.
