MARGAO
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has promised to convene a meeting of the High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) on Sonsodo, but that will not stop the Margao Municipal Council from going ahead with the opening of the financial bids for the setting up of the three bio-methanation plants in Margao.
On the floor of the House in the recently-concluded Assembly Session, the Chief Minister had promised to call a meeting of the HPCC headed by him after the opposition MLAs raised an uproar over the Margao Municipal Council’s plan to go ahead with the three bio-methanation plants when the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) headed by Minister Michael Lobo had prepared estimate for seven bio-methanation plants for Margao.
Incidentally, while the Chief Minister told the media during his visit to Margao that he would soon convene a meeting of the HPCC, the MMC is not barred from opening the financial bids scheduled on Friday, indicating that the government has no intention to stop the Margao civic body from going ahead with the bio-methanation plant tender.
After the issue rocked the House in the last Assembly session, it was thought that the Chief Minister-headed HPCC will meet by February 10, to take a final call on the implementation of the bio-methanation technology in the city. However, with the HPCC meeting not taking place yet and the Chief Minister only promising to hold in the near future, sources said the government has conveniently allowed the MMC to comply with the mandatory tendering process of opening the financial bids scheduled on Friday.
Sources in the MMC said the civic body is going ahead with the opening of the financial bid scheduled on Friday since there’s no communique received from the government to keep the tendering process on hold.
In fact, MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes has already written letters to the seven bidders to remain present at the time of the opening of the financial bids after their technical bids for the three bio-methanation were found in order.
The seven bio-methanation plants proposed by the MMC were grounded in controversy over the cost of these plants as the cost of each of these plants earlier approved by the Director of Municipal Administration were pegged at around Rs 2.39 crore while the preliminary cost of each of the seven plants prepared by the GWMC had put the cost to around Rs 4.80 crore.
