Road contractors continue to bid low

Despite criticism over the low bids received in the previous two road work contracts, civic contractors continue to bid low.

Despite criticism over the low bids received in the previous two road work contracts, civic contractors continue to bid low.

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In the three bids that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received, the bidding has been in the range of 15 to 21 per cent lower than the civic body’s estimate.

In addition, civic officials have also raised suspicions over a contractor circumventing
rules to bag more than one contract.

Although civic rules mandate that one contractor can bid for just one work, a major roadwork contractor, RP Shah Infraprojects Ltd (RPS Infra), has bid the lowest for two works, under two different company names.

The two works are the cement-concretisation(CC) of the Sanjay Enclave road in Versova, worth Rs 27 crore, and the sealing of joints on all CC roads in the western suburbs, which are not under the defect liability period, a work which will cost the BMC around Rs 2.5 crore.

For the former, the company has bid in the name of RPS Infraprojects Ltd, while for the latter, it has submitted the bid in the name of Shah & Parekh Company.

A civic official, who did not wish to be named, said: “This is a smart way to circumvent our rules, which had made it mandatory that the same firm cannot bid for more than one work. We had also made clear that there cannot be common partners in two companies, which bid for two different works.”

Nitin Shah, from RPS Infra, however, said there was nothing wrong in the bids. “Both these companies have been registered under different owners. Also, we don’t even have any common partners owning a stake in the two companies. Hence, we haven’t done anything wrong by bidding for two works,” he said.