Cuttack, Oct. 26: Gangsters hurled two crude bombs at the executive engineer's drainage division office at Gandarpur to disturb the e-tender process for 30 projects worth Rs 7 crore.

No one was injured in the incident.

"The role of gangsters operating in and around Kendrapara behind the bombings is being investigated," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

Eyewitnesses told the police that two motorcycle-borne youths hurled the bombs that exploded after hitting the entry gate of the executive engineer's office around 1:30pm.

It is suspected that the bombing was targeted to terrorise contractors and officials of the drainage division ahead of the tender process. The authorities had called e-tenders for 30 projects in Cuttack under the drainage division worth Rs 7 crore and the tenders were to be opened on October 31.

Notwithstanding the fact that the government has resorted to e-tendering process, the gangsters are targeting the contractors and officials to ensure that the contractors backed by them were given the contracts. This has become a major concern for the police.

"Criminals demand a huge cut for the works under the drainage, roads and buildings division and irrigation departments. Most of the small contractors have to shell out protection money to ensure that they get contracts," said a contractor, who did not wish to be named for obvious reasons.

Today's bombing on the drainage division office is another example of the rising interference of criminal groups in the tender works.

"We suspect that the bombing could be for personal gains by some criminals or individual for personal interests," said executive engineer Pradip Sagar Duria.

Duria said it was a few employees of the division who informed about the bombings as all the senior staff members, mostly the executive engineers, were busy attending a review meeting in the office today.

On May 25, 2013, criminals had hurled crude bombs at the office of the roads and buildings division of the public works department at Cantonment road.

Subsequently, the police had arrested two accused, Chitaranjan Patra, 24, and P. Muna Reddy, 23, of Jobra and Jagatpur, respectively.

On April 18, 2012, a woman employee had suffered minor injuries after criminals hurled bombs at the office of the executive engineer, Mahanadi south division (water resource department), at Jobra.

Both the bombings were targeted to terrorise contractors to bag various contracts under the respective divisions in the city.