Congress leader says if the BMC couldn’t get contractor in six months, how will it succeed in fortnight?
The project is supposed to add 200 MLD of water to the current daily supply of 3,850 MLD. Representation Pic
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has floated a short tender to appoint a contractor for the long-pending ambitious desalination project at Manori. The civic body couldn’t find a contractor even seven months after floating the tender in December. There are allegations of discrepancies in the tender process.
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The BMC had appointed IDE Water Technologies Ltd, an Israeli company, in February 2021 to prepare a detailed project report for a desalination project at Manori. The project is supposed to add 200 MLD of water to the current daily supply of 3,850 MLD, and the capacity of the plant can be later doubled. Later, in January 2022, the civic body engaged M/s SMEC India to evaluate the study and designs prepared by the Israeli firm. The report was submitted in November 2022. The civic body issued a tender notice on December 4, 2023, to set up a plant which can turn saline water potable and extended it almost six times since then till June 2024.
The BMC cancelled the tender process as prospective contractors weren’t able to submit the technical paperwork required. The project consultant wasn’t satisfied with the documents provided by the bidders. Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that there was cartelisation. The tender conditions were set such that the contract could be given to a favourite bidder even though several global companies are equally or more qualified.
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Now, the BMC has floated a short tender for 15 days. The tender was floated on August 6 and the date of submission of the e-tender is August 19. The BMC mentioned that eligible experience for the project would include “completed projects of construction/development of desalination plants, water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants, water supply tunnels, bulk drinking water supply project, executed exclusively for drinking water supply, roads, highways, bridges, etc”.
Sawant said, “Due to pressure from us, the previous tender for desalination got cancelled. If in six months, they could not get a proper contractor, how can you expect that to happen in 15 days? Why such a hurry? In addition, how would the experience of highways, roads and bridges be useful in a desalination project? This is clearly an attempt to get a second bid in order to ratify the bid of their favourite company.”
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