Chennai Corporation has adopted stringent norms to select contractors for a major makeover of bus routes.
Opening the technical bids for the makeover of 197 damaged bus routes on Friday, the civic body disqualified contractors who do not own hot-mix plants and modern machinery for implementing the project. Fewer contractors participated in the bid on Friday owing to stringent norms.
The Rs. 430-crore project has been divided into 33 packages. Contractors who participated in the tender on Friday for each of the packages produced a certified copy regarding the machinery to be used for the road relaying project. Chennai Corporation officials visited the plants owned by the contractors on the outskirts and screened the equipment before issuance of the certificate for the machinery.
“Executive engineers visited plants located in Nallambakkam, Tiruneermalai and Chunguvarchatram to certify the machinery. Contractors who did not have the adequate machinery were disqualified. They will not be permitted to hire equipment from other agencies,” said an official.
Such stringent norms were reportedly put in place to prevent delay in implementation of the project and improve the quality of roads. Previously, contractors used to get work orders despite not owning proper equipment. They used to later hire equipment to carry out the work, causing delay.
“Every aspect of the work is likely to be improved through the stringent norms,” said an official. Experts had pointed to problems related to machinery that caused deterioration in the quality of roads. Good machinery and computerised control of mixing of metal and bitumen will improve the quality of roads.
