Chandigarh’s first synthetic track: UT refloats tender at lower rates

Tribune News Service

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, August 16

It seems the Chandigarh Administration has accepted the flaw, committed intentionally or unintentionally, in floating the tender to purchase the city’s first 400m eight-lane synthetic track, planned to come up at the Sector 7 Sports Complex.

The Administration has now refloated the tender, but at lower rates. In addition, the guarantee period of the turf, which was earlier said to be neglected, has been included.

The previously floated Rs 7,25,75,433 (having earnest money of Rs 14,51,510) tender, which was exclusively reported to be cancelled on July 9 following complaints of financial discrepancy in the same columns, now has been re-floated for Rs 6,80,02,300 (having earnest money of Rs 13,60,046), a difference of Rs 45,73,133. The company will be asked to complete the project within six months.

The pre-bid meeting of this tender is scheduled to be held on August 17 at the office of the Superintending Engineer, Sector 9. The bid submission will end on August 25 at 3 pm. The bids will be open at 4 pm on August 25.

Notably, the new tender has been floated by making some changes to the previously advertised tender and also has a minimum ‘guarantee period’ of the turf.

“The matter should be investigated thoroughly. The new tender amount is cheaper and has the addition of some items in comparison to the previous tender. The new tender even mentions ‘guarantee period’, where the supplier has to help in repairing or upkeep of the turf, which was missing in the previous tender,” said a highly placed source in the department.

The last bid was opened on May 5 and had a total of four companies - Advanced Sports Technologies (submitted bid on March 19), M/S Syncotts (submitted bid on April 27), Shiv Naresh Sports Private Limited (submitted bid on April 27) and Sports Facilities Co Pvt Limited (submitted bid on May 5). However, a complaint alleging financial loss to the Administration was filed with the UT Administrator, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and even with the CBI.

It’s been over 10 years now that the UT Administration is working on providing a synthetic track to city athletes.

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