Calcutta: The tender for a combined contract to build a flyover each in Sector V and Jadavpur has for the second time attracted a lone bidder in Larsen & Toubro.
If the bid meets all the criteria, there will be no bar on the contract going to the Mumbai-headquartered construction engineering company that has built the VIP Road and Garden Reach flyovers, a senior official in the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) told Metro.
The Sector V flyover will be a 500m long elevated passage meant to bypass the congested College More crossing. The flyover in south Calcutta will be longer at 1.5km, taking off close to the southern end of Dhakuria bridge and terminating near the gate to KPC Medical College and Hospital in Jadavpur.
The surprising lack of interest among more companies to bid for these infrastructure projects is being attributed to a combination of factors.
"Calcutta doesn't have many big players in this sector. A company usually prefers to work in a location where it has executed large projects before. At least one such company (HCC) had its project delayed by years because of various hurdles and that did not send out the right signals," said an engineer employed with a top infrastructure firm.
Local construction engineering companies either do not have the financial muscle or technical prowess to execute such projects, he said.
The rule book states that if there is a single bidder for a project when the tender is published for the first time, the contract cannot be given without advertising the tender again.
If the second call does not attract more than one bid, the only company in contention gets the contract after meeting the mandatory technical and financial requirements.
"We are currently doing the technical evaluation of Larsen & Toubro's bid. If the bidder meets the technical prerequisites, the financial portion of the bid will be opened," " the CMDA official said.
In the financial bid, a bidder mentions the cost at which it will be able to execute the project.
HCC, also headquartered in Mumbai, had built most of the Parama-Park Circus flyover. Larsen & Toubro built the portion running above the rail tracks at Park Circus.
The tender for the Sector V and Jadavpur flyovers had mentioned that the bidders would need to have "satisfactorily completed a similar project of a minimum value of at least one contract of Rs 200 crore, or two contracts of Rs 150 crore each, or three contracts of Rs 100 crore each".
Another requirement was for every potential bidder to have had an average annual turnover of Rs 400 crore over the past five financial years.
