Rs 600 cr tenders for flood control works in Himachal rivers cancelled

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 20

The IPH Department has cancelled Rs 600 crore tenders of flood control works in the rivers of the state due to the controversy over a condition of wire thickness.

Sources said that IPH Secretary Vikas Labroo had written to the State Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) to revise the condition and ordered the cancellation of the tenders.

The matter was reported for the first time in these columns. The department had introduced a condition in the tenders that only those contractors, who had earlier worked on 5 mm wire created embankments, were eligible to bid. The eligibility condition was allegedly added to favour a group of contractors, who had earlier worked on 5 mm wire created embankments in the Swan canalisation project.

When The Tribune highlighted the matter, the IPH Secretary put the tenders on hold on April 16 and sought a report on the matter. The sources said that Engineer-in-Chief (Projects) Dharminder Gill stated in his report that the eligibility condition in the tenders was discriminatory and would reduce competition. The Secretary ordered the cancellation of all tenders, which would be reissued after the STAC revises the condition.

The sources said that the condition of 5 mm wire in creating embankments was continuing as per the 21-year-old recommendation of the STAC. However, despite the fact that technology had advanced the STAC was never approached for amending the condition since then. Labroo admitted that the tenders had been cancelled on the basis of the field report.

The cancellation of the tenders had also brought under scrutiny the flood control works done for Swan canalisation in the past one decade. The sources said that most of flood control works in the Swan were done on the basis of this controversial condition that eliminated competition and favoured a few contractors. Most of the flood protection works in Punjab and Haryana are done using 4 mm wire embankments.

Due to this condition, the department had also paid more for earth works. While the PWD had paid at the maximum rate of about Rs 200 per cubic metre for earth works done for roads, the IPH Department paid Rs 500 per cubic metre.