Musi project tenders turn murkier than Musi River
Concerns arise over the Musi Riverfront Development Project's ₹58,000 crore cost and consultancy selection, with the MRDCL unexpectedly canceling tenders before awarding the contract to a consortium amid alleged political meetings
Hyderabad: It is not just the estimated cost for the Musi Riverfront Development Project, the pet project of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, that is raising doubts, but even the selection of the consultancy for preparation of a master plan for the project is also now emerging to be quite shady.
The Musi Riverfront Development Corporation (MRDCL), which had called for tenders in February, pegging the cost of the project at Rs.58,000 crore, quite inexplicably cancelled the tender after six months, in August. That was not all. Tenders were issued in within a week for the second time, and barely in a month, the contract to prepare the master plan was awarded to one consortium. By this time, the number of companies that first came forward expressing interest was narrowed down to just two, with the consortium led by Meinhardt Singapore Pvt Ltd finally bagging the contract. All this, allegedly after a meeting between Revanth Reddy and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, N Chandrababu Naidu.
Doubts are now being raised that the tendering process was complicated deliberately to favour Meinhardt. It is also being alleged that all tender norms were violated due to political interference, which is said to have been the reason for the project estimate also to shoot up from Rs.58,000 crore to a staggering Rs.1.5 lakh crore.
Revanth Reddy had announced the project at Rs.50,000 crore soon after the Congress came to power. Soon after this, MRDCL officials took up exercise to finalise the consultancy for preparing the project master plan. MRDCL called for Expression of Interest on February 5 (No.5/SE(MRDCL/2023-24/dt 5-2-2024), following which 10 companies filed bids. Officials called for a pre-bid meeting, after which seven consultancies were found to be technically eligible. The MRDCL then issued a Request for Proposal (RfP) notification on April 10. The last date was June 24.
Out of the seven companies found technically eligible, only five responded and submitted RfPs. One was LEA Associates South Asia Pvt Ltd, Surbana Jurong Consultants India Pvt Ltd, Tractebel Engineer Private Limited, SAI Consultancy Engineering Pvt Ltd and Meinhardt Singapore Pvt Ltd. SAI Consultancy Engineering was the lowest bidder (L1), quoting Rs.60 crore, while the second was Tractebel with Rs.75 crore.
However, on August 6, MRDCL cancelled the RfP tenders citing technical reasons, but with no other explanation, that too after six months, thus triggering doubts. MRDCL called for RfP for the second time within a week, with August 13 to September 12 being the timeframe given for submission of the request. This time, only two takers were there, LEA Associates and the Meinhardt-led consortium. When price bids were opened, LEA had quoted Rs.141 crore, while Meinhardt quoted Rs.143 crore. Though MRDCL should have declared LEA as L1 and handed over the project, it was rejected after a few days citing technical reasons. With only Meinhardt remaining, officials declared the bid at Rs.141 crore and declared Meinhardt as L1, it is learnt.
With no explanations from the officials, doubts are being raised over why Meinhardt was chosen. It is believed that highly influential people who were involved in the Amaravathi Project (including former Singapore Minister Subramaniam Iswaran who was jailed barely a week ago) also took interest in the Musi project, all after the meeting between Revanth Reddy and Naidu in Hyderabad in July.
