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Mohali MC’s fifth advertisement tender also draws a blank
Following a lot of hue and cry in the House meeting in March, pertaining to the civic body’s “failure” to allot the advertisement tender, Mohali MC had invited fresh tenders the same month
The Mohali municipal corporation’s fifth attempt to allot the ₹31-crore advertisement tender has also failed to draw bidders, leaving the already cash-strapped civic body staring at more revenue loss.
Following a lot of hue and cry in the MC House meeting in March, pertaining to the civic body’s “failure” to allot the advertisement tender, MC had invited fresh tenders the same month.
After four failed attempts in the financial year 2023-24, MC in its fifth attempt had also divided the city into four zones with separate smaller tenders, with hopes of finding contractors in the 2024-25 fiscal.
A senior MC official said the tenders could not be allotted even for the fifth time due to the nexus of available players in the business. “All bidders jointly decided not to make any bid to force the state government to slash the tender price. Even if we reduce the tender price, a fresh resolution needs to be passed in the next House meeting and sent to the local government department for approval.”
While the MC officials had proposed a ₹30-crore tender in the last meeting, the House had insisted on increasing it by ₹1 crore.
There were 185 advertisement sites in the city till 2018, but after GMADA handed over Sectors 76 to 80 to MC, the civic body conducted a detailed survey and added 154 new sites in March last year to increase income.
MC to invite online tenders through private bank
MC has provided the list of advertisement sites to a bank for a survey. If approved, the bank will develop a software for online tenders, auto booking of the advertisement sites and auto payment.
“We are already in talks with a private bank, which is already handling the online advertisement process for Bathinda and Jalandhar. We may follow suit in Mohali and get a software developed. We intend to streamline the advertisement process at the earliest which will generate the expected revenue,” Navjot Kaur, Commissioner Mohali MC said.
During the budget meeting held on March 1, the MC House had raised suspicion that the civic body failed to achieve its proposed income of ₹31 crore in financial year 2023-24 through advertisement tender, earning just ₹6.11 crore, despite advertisement hoardings being allotted across the city.
For Zone 1, which comprises Sectors 54, 55, 56, 56-A, 57, 58, 72 and 73, MC had set a tender amount of ₹5.72 crore, while for Zone 2, including Sectors 51, 52, 53, 60, 61, 61, 69, 70 and 71, and Mataur village, the tender amount of ₹12.62 crore was set.
Having a tender price of ₹7.49 crore, Sectors 48, 49, 50, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 and 68 fall under Zone 3; and Sectors 74 to 80 and Sohana under Zone 4, with proposed tender fee of ₹5.17 crore.
