Stracon-TWI has made the lowest bid at Rs 22 crore in addition to 750,000pounds for giving digital flyaway kit.

With this, both the marketing and production rights have turned into majorcontroversies barely 24 hours after Prasar Bharati opened up the tender. OnMonday, some of the bidders sought rejection of Buddha Films and ZeeTelefilms bids on the ground that both the bidders belonged to the samegroup.

"If the bid of Stracon-TWI is accepted despite obvious defects andduplicities, the situation could easily result in such a decision beingchallenged in the courts," Nimbus Communications associate vice presidentSanjiv Shroff told `The Financial Express'.

In a letter to the Prasar Bharati on Tuesday, Nimbus has demanded rejectionof the Stracon-TWI bid as it was "not as per the tender specifications andformat of Doordarshan."

The quotation of Stracon-TWI was on a per series basis instead of a two-yearproduction contract and was "conditional" to the schedule of matchesprepared by themselves, Nimbus alleged.

"The bid demands extra payment of Rs 24 lakh per one-dayer and Rs 65 lakhper test match if the schedule varies (from the one created by Stracon-TWIthemselves), leaving Doordarshan open to extraordinary increases infinancial burden. There is no such provision in the tender document," Nimbuswrote to the Prasar Bharati.

Nimbus also alleged that the Stracon bid provided for separate quotation foranalogue and digital production. The transfer of ownership of digitalflyaway kits has been made subject to the approval of customs and othergovernment approvals while the tender document made the bidder responsiblefor it, Nimbus pointed out.

Stracon had made three different quotations for the transfer of ownership -at approximately Rs 60 crore, Rs 23 crore and Rs 11.5 crore. "Under theconditions governing any tender, multiple price quotations are not permittedas the person tendering can't have the benefit of three different pricequotations in one tender. It is apparent that this is a malafide attempt bythe bidder to retain the option of determining what their actual offer isafter all the bids have been opened," Nimbus said.

Stracon chief Siddharth Ray, however, did not agree that his bid wasdefective. "Our bid is exactly as per the tender requirement. Let the tendercommittee decide whether it is the lowest and the best. If they would havefound it defective, then they would have rejected it."

Responding to this, Shroff said, "The tender committee neither accepted norrejected any bids. They were merely being opened in the presence of thebidders and are being scrutinised. The committee did record the objection ofNimbus and WorldTel. In fact, two of the members pointed out to Stracon thattheir bid was extremely and unnecessarily confusing and had far too manyconditions attached to it."