Chandigarh admn invites bids for fourth time in a year for Punjab and Haryana civil secretariat restoration

It was in August 2019 that the engineering department floated the first tender for ₹25-crore project. No bid has been received in the past three attempts

The Chandigarh administration has invited bids for restoration work at the Punjab and Haryana civil secretariats for the fourth time in one year.

The Punjab and Haryana civil secretariats, legislative assembly of the two states and the Punjab and Haryana high court are part of the Capitol Complex. The buildings, designed by French architect Le Corbusier, were constructed between 1955 and 1958. The Capitol Complex was declared a Unesco heritage site in 2016.

It was in August 2019 that the engineering department floated a tender inviting companies to undertake the ₹25-crore project of restoring, preserving, conserving and managing the Punjab and Haryana civil secretariat building.

After no bid was received, the eligibility conditions were relaxed and a fresh tender floated in October 2019. However, the department found no taker. A similar response was received during the third attempt in March this year, leading to the fourth attempt this month.

Under the project, the secretariat building is to be restored in its original form. It involves work primarily on the sealing and flooring, the cost of which is pegged at around ₹19.85 crore. For piping and other public health works, the administration will spend another ₹2.6 crore, and for the electricity work, a budget of ₹3 crore has been sanctioned.