Contractors allege fraud in tender of Rs 9.50 crore

Aurangabad, Feb 25:

A building of State Excise Office will be constructed at a cost of Rs 9.50 crore near the Dudh Dairy area. It includes an office and two residential quarters. On Saturday, a delegation of contractors will meet the secretary of the Public Works Department (PWD) and demand re-tendering of the work alleging fraud.

On February 21, a contractor poured kerosene on his body in the chief engineer's office after he refused to accept a tender. Three days later, a tender of Rs 9.50 crore was issued causing a rift between the contractors and officials. The contractors will meet the secretary on Saturday and submit a statement so that the matter can be investigated before the work order is issued. Tenders of Hi-Tech Infra, Wonder Constructions, NK Constructions, Khwaja Mistry, KK Thorat, KH Constructions, Aman Constructions, Nirmiti constructions and Star constructions were filed for this work.

How was the decision made

There were 14 tenders for construction of the new building of the state excise office.Out of which 11 tenders were opened. Tenders for Om Sai Real Estate Contractor were quoted low by 17.70 per cent. However, the tender was accepted by the PWD, despite several points leading to the disqualification of the tender, with the remaining 10 contractors raising objections. Despite this, the construction department approved Om Sai’s tender. Contractors alleged that rather than giving preference to those who have their own equipment, the officials have preferred contractors dependent on outsourcing of machinery.