Refuting Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh's allegation about irregularity in the award of contract for building the Zoji La tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir, the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, said in a press release that due process was followed while maintaining complete transparency in the awarding of contracts. The Zoji La tunnel will establish all-weather connectivity from Srinagar to Kargil.
The release said the contract was awarded after the bid was found technically responsive. It further stated that the e-tendering process was adopted for award of Zoji La Tunnel contract under the build-operate-transfer mode (Annuity).
The ministry said the request for quotation (RFQ) for the project was invited in April 2013. Four agencies purchased the RFQ documents. However, only one agency submitted it. As there was only a single tender at the RFQ stage, the tender process was cancelled without going to the request for proposal (financial) stage.
Subsequently, RFQ was again invited and four agencies were technically pre-qualified for participation. Out of these, only one participated in the process. As there was a single tender, the financial bid was not opened.
Based on this experience, it was decided to adopt a change in system of calling bid, i.e. from two stage (RFQ & RFP) system to a single stage (RFP) system, the ministry said. Accordingly, a fresh bid under the new system was called for to ensure wider participation. According to the press release, considering the geographical and strategic location of the project, a wider publication through leading newspapers and through Ministry of External Affairs to foreign countries was adopted, and an additional 90 days were given for submitting bids.
However, only one bidder participated. As a result the bid was cancelled without opening it according to the ministry's guidelines.
Subsequently, tender was re-invited with December 10, 2015 as the deadline for submission of bid. Only IRB Infrastructure Developers submitted a bid and the work was awarded based on the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the ministry said.
