Row over clubbing of tenders under PMGSY

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, December 10

The decision of the Public Works Department (PWD) to club various tenders under the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) has evoked a controversy. PWD contractors from the state are alleging that due to the clubbing of tenders, most of them have become ineligible for allotment of works. The contractors have sought intervention of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on the issue.

Navneet Thakur, president of the PWD Contractor Association of Kangra and Chamba, said they had recently met the Chief Minister and he had assured them that the decision of the department to club various tenders would be reversed.

Thakur alleged that the earlier tenders were issued by the PWD for each road to be constructed under the PMGSY. As per the detailed project report sent by the PWD to the Centre also, the tenders should have been allotted for each road separately. However, the PWD clubbed various tenders for construction of roads under the PMGSY.

Due to this, the financial volume of each tender increased within the range of Rs 8 crore to Rs 20 crore. Most of contractors from Himachal became ineligible for allotment of tenders due to increased financial involvement, he said.

Thakur said the contractors from the state initially petitioned the PWD minister and senior officials against the move. However, they failed to get any reprieve and then they met the CM on December 4. The CM issued directions to the officials concerned to revert to the old practice of issuing work tenders for each road to be constructed under the PMGSY rather than clubbing works of various roads, he said.

Meanwhile, PWD Engineer-in-Chief Ajay Gupta said as per the directions of the Union Government, the state wanted to introduce new technology in the construction of roads under the PMGSY. We had proposed to construct 650 km roads each with cement-based technology (CBT) and Full Depth Technology (FDT) under the PMGSY in the state.

There are very few companies in the country that are providing said technologies in the country. We have followed the UP model where about 5,000 km road under the PMGSY have been constructed using FDT. To accommodate the Himachal contractors, we have allowed joint ventures for use of modern technology in construction of road, he said.