The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) may want the government to cancel a tender won by a Chinese firm in the light of the aggression at Galwan, but sources from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) which conducted the bidding said the contract cannot be cancelled as it is an ADB-funded one and their rules don’t allow for this.
Last week, the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company Limited (STEC) emerged as the lowest bidder – it bid Rs 1,126.9 crore versus L&T’s Rs 1,170 crore – for an underground stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System. This is one of three rapid-rail corridors proposed under the project that will connect Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad.
Other bidders included Tata Projects at Rs 1,346.3 crore and Afcons Infrastructure which bid Rs 1,400.4 crore.
SJM co-convener Ashwani Mahajan tweeted that the need of the hour was to “boycott Chinese products, stop endorsing Chinese brands, govt stops Chinese imports, Chinese investment and tenders to Chinese companies for infrastructure including proposed tender to Tunnel Eng Co”. An MoHUA official said the construction of the 5.6 km tunnel was an ADB-funded project – the bids were invited in November 2019 and opened on March 16, 2020 – and STEC emerged as the lowest bidder on June 12; he said that while the tender was “under process” and “yet to be finalised”, “ADB/World Bank/Multi-lateral procurement guidelines do not allow discrimination among firms/ countries”.
