LUCKNOW The Uttar Pradesh government is soon likely to reinitiate the process of inviting bids for the appointment of a consultant to work out a roadmap to make the state a trillion-dollar economy.
There was a question mark over the fate of the process of appointment of consultant following cancellation of bids on technical grounds on March 22, 2021.
As the decision to re-invite the bids comes about eight months after the cancellation, questions were also being raised over whether the state government would follow the same timeline of 2020-2025.
“We understand a decision to reinitiate the process of bidding has been taken at the highest level. We will float the bids once the decision is communicated to us,” said a senior officer of state government.
As more than one and a half year period had already gone by in the processing of floating bids, amending and subsequently cancelling them, there were indications that the timeline to achieve the objective may be amended.
“The decision to float the bids has to be comprehensive. We will obviously rework the timelines when we invite the bids again,” said the officer.
{{/usCountry}}“The decision to float the bids has to be comprehensive. We will obviously rework the timelines when we invite the bids again,” said the officer.
{{/usCountry}}The state government’s decision to cancel the bids came when it was zeroing down on the selection of the consultant.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first floated the idea about making the state a trillion-dollar economy. Speaking at the UP Investors Summit-2018, Modi had said Maharashtra too had set a target to become a trillion-dollar economy.
“Can Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh compete with each other to become the trillion-dollar economy? Will UP government compete with other states? More the competition, more will be the investment. This will result in creation of more jobs and strengthen the concept of cooperative federalism,” said Modi at the summit on February 21, 2018.
Soon, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his team began working to give some shape to the idea. The state government invited suggestions and held discussions with leading institutions. On June 19, 2020, it floated bids for the appointment of a consultant. The UP government decided to revise the Request for Proposal (RFP) document and the timelines and the bidders were asked to submit their e-bids by October 9, 2020.
The revised RFP expected the selected consultant to perform the “Herculean task” of taking the size of UP’s GSDP to trillion dollars. In all, the state government received eight bids. A premier management institute of the country also submitted the bid. Four of the bidders qualified the technical round and their financial bids were opened on November 27, 2020. However, the cancellation of bids was soon announced.
“If the state government invites fresh bids to prepare a roadmap to make UP a trillion-dollar economy by 2025, its target will become more difficult to achieve as one a half years of the five-year period have already passed. Moreover, 2021 has not been good for growth of the economy primarily due to Covid-19,” said Professor Yashvir Tyagi, former head of department, economics, Lucknow University.
As per the state government’s statistics, UP’s GSDP had been pegged at ₹17.39 lakh crore in 2020-2021. Taking 2020-2021 as the base year, the GSDP will need to grow at about 44% per annum to achieve the target of 1-trillion dollar economy. “This level of increase in the GSDP appears to be beyond the realm of reality,” he added.