Chennai Corporation failed to follow the rules while inviting bids for Bus Route Roads (BRR), alleged Jayaram Venkatesan, Convenor, Arappor Iyakkam. This had resulted in a huge loss to the exchequer, he added.
Addressing mediapersons on Thursday, Mr. Venkatesan claimed he had collected evidence to prove his point. “Advertisements inviting tenders for BRRs were called on August 8, 2018 and published in the tender bulletin on August 9. The last date for submission of tender bids was September 9 and the tender opening date was scheduled on September 10. A part of the bids was opened on September 10 and another part on September 17. “However, in the advertisement on August 8 and the bulletin on August 9, the tender notice did not contain any details,” he said.
“In my earlier complaint, I had alleged that there are many roads where there are storm water drainsand they are not really missing links as listed in the tender,” said Mr. Venkatesan.
He has been demanding cancellation of the tenders for SWD work across the city for the past few weeks.
Velumani aides
“We welcome the decision to cancel ₹123 crore new missing link SWD tenders to break the packages into smaller pieces. However, there is a blatant effort to save the contractor and the officials involved. Arappor Iyakkam had also released evidence of collusion of firms run by close aides of Minister S.P. Velumani in September 2018. Out of these, three firms have colluded in a big way amongst them in winning Chennai Corporation tenders. All these tenders should have been rejected on the grounds of bid collusion,” claimed Mr. Venkatesan.
