The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the finalisation of tender for construction of Multi-purpose Support Vessel got delayed as one of the rejected bidders approached Independent External Monitor (IEM) on two occasions. This bidder also submitted various representations to ONGC and the Ministry. All these were deliberated in ONGC. This entire exercise delayed the tendering process. The revised estimated cost of the project is USD 185 million.