Under the condition of anonymity, a senior official confirmed the news. While we have withdrawn the bids, the Metro Line 6 projects won’t be delayed because we will issue fresh tenders with usual terms and policies in 10 days.

Mumbai: On Wednesday, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) canceled tenders for rolling stock and fire safety for Metro Line 6 (Swami Samarth Nagar to Kanjur Marg). The decision was made because the tender paperwork did not adhere to the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) strict requirements.

Under the condition of anonymity, a senior official confirmed the news. The officer stated, “Even though we have canceled the bids, it won’t delay the Metro Line 6 projects as we will float new tenders with usual conditions and policy within 10 days.

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This has led some people to wonder how well the internal departments of the MMRDA are operating.

The organization had hired a consultant to help with the Mumbai Metro Line 6 tendering process, and the project’s estimated cost was $6700 crore. A few months ago, bids for the rolling stock and associated technological systems were put out to tender. After the tenders were published, MMRDA authorities discovered gaps in the documentation. As a result, a senior MMRDA official scrutinized the documents associated with each contract. At that point, it became apparent that the accepted practices were not followed. Additionally, there was no mechanism for evaluating the procedure, which places the burden of accountability for the system warranty and any damage or repairs on the supplier. Following this, the tender was canceled and MMRDA launched an internal investigation into the officers involved in the process with the consultant

“The documents provided showed a disregard for CVC regulations and global procurement standards. Value engineering, asset replacement, and whole-life cost analysis clauses were crucially absent. Additionally, fundamental contract management elements like document priority, upkeep, security, and payment terms need to be fixed. Another major oversight was the commissioner of metro railway safety’s (CMRS) lack of monitoring and corrective action. In order to improve transparency and clarity in the procurement process, MMRDA is currently correcting these errors and putting a policy into place. Show-cause letters have been sent to the consultants and officers in charge, according to an MMRDA official who spoke on the record.

Source- Travel daily