MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council is keeping its fingers crossed as the tender for the multi-level parking project will be opened on Thursday.
Reason. When the MMC had opened the tender last month, there were no takers for the project, leaving the civic body with no option than to extend the time-frame for the bidders to submit their bids. The tender was scheduled to be opened on Wednesday, but has been postponed for a day as the server was down on Wednesday.
Officials, however, preferred to keep their fingers crossed, with an official saying the civic body may find itself in a tight spot in the event no bidders show up to take up the crucial parking project.
Questions have already been raised in certain quarters as to why contractors prefer to stay away from taking up the prestigious project floated by the Margao Municipal Council.
While officials have attributed the lack of response to the tender to the fact that the rates of construction such as steel and cement has increased substantially, the civic body has no answer to the situation as it is bound to go by the GSR rates.
“Let us wait and see whether any bidder has submitted his bid for the project. If there are no takers, the civic body will have to take appropriate action in the matter,” remarked an official in the know.
Foundation stone for the multi-level parking project was laid around six years ago in October 2015 just before the civic polls. After the new Council assumed office by 2015-end, the process to tender the project was set in motion.
The project, however, could not see the light of day till date after the GST regime came in force and the bidder, who had bagged the project, withdrew himself from the work.
Since then, the project was marked by delays and it was only recently that the work was tendered, but bidders have shied away from taking up the project for reasons best known to them.
