Have cops ‘armtwisted’ BBMP to violate 60-day tender norm for ‘police chowkies’?
BBMP tender for police cubicles has an 11-day deadline, preventing larger participation by SC/ST bidders for whom the project is reserved — and possibly favouring a particular bidder
BENGALURU:
How tenders can be manipulated to favour some bidders and put a roadblock in the path of others is well illustrated by a recent tender for construction of police sentry posts (‘police chowkies’) called by BBMP. In a classic example, civic engineers have invited a short-term tender for the first call by giving only 11 days’ time for bids for the construction of these ‘chowkies’ on a BOT (build-operate-transfer) basis at 124 locations in Bengaluru.
The tender is reserved for SC/ST beneficiaries and NGOs that are purely administered by SCs/STs, and the project cost is Rs 18 crore. The successful bidder also gets commercial advertisement rights on the façade of the chowkies.
The big question is: What was the urgency for BBMP’s Executive Engineer (Traffic Engineering Cell, Road Infrastructure) to invite a tender by giving bidders only 11 days to respond? Why did the engineer not abide by the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act which specifies 60 days’ time for a first-call tender – sufficient time for interested parties to participate in the bidding process?
The question remains unanswered but prima facie the intention seems to be to benefit a particular bidder by putting an obstacle in the way of SC/ST bidders in terms of just 11 days’ time to respond to the tender.
As per the bidding document, a copy of which is with TheBengaluruLive, the Executive Engineer invited the tender on July 23, 2021, held a pre-bid meeting on July 30 and fixed the last date for submission of bids as August 4.
Pre-retirement link?
Sources in BBMP said the Executive Engineer concerned is set to retire on August 31 and wanted to complete the entire procedure for the ‘124 police chowkies’ project before that date.
Sources also said that as per the project details, the street furniture that goes into the kiosks has to be designed keeping in mind the health and convenience of traffic police manning the traffic signals in the city. BBMP recognizes that aesthetically designed and superior quality street furniture does not just elevate the brand equity of the city, it is also seen as a symbol of good governance. The civic agency also believes that these initiatives will have intangible but long-lasting benefits as they go down very well with the citizens.
“Projects of such a large scale require a lot of capital investment along with regular maintenance, which itself is a labour-, time- and resource-intensive activity. In order to ensure the sustainability of these projects, the PPP model is being adopted for the current project wherein the bidder will invest in the construction of police booths/ kiosks as per approved designs,” the sources added.
The aim of the project is to design, build, operate (including maintenance) and transfer police booths/ kiosks, as per approved designs by BBMP and the traffic police, for a period of 20 years. It is said that the BBMP Chief Commissioner has authorised the Executive Engineer (RITEC) to invite tenders on short notice.
Engineer’s take
When contacted, Srinivas, BBMP’s Executive Engineer (Traffic Engineering Cell, Road Infrastructure) told TheBengaluruLive that the entire tender is under evaluation and it is yet to be finalised. He said, “This is a recall tender as we had withdrawn our earlier call given on this tender. We had asked for a minimum turnover of Rs 25 crore for interested people participating in the tender but after a few objected to it, we had to bring it down to Rs 2.5 crore. We invited the tender and should have given 60 days’ time, but there is pressure from the police department for the installation of police chowkis. Hence, we had to invite a short-term tender.”
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