Gurgaon: A new directive from Haryana’s urban local bodies (ULB) department could have a direct bearing on the city, where repeated changes, cancellations and delays in civic tenders have often left services stuck on paper while problems pile up on the ground.ULB department has directed all district municipal commissioners and commissioners of municipal corporations in Haryana to strictly adhere to timelines prescribed on Haryana Engineering Works Portal (HEWP) for technical evaluation and tender recalling. Under the directives, if a tender is cancelled after opening of the technical bid, it must now be recalled within seven working days. If modifications are required in the tender documents, the tender has to be recalled within 21 working days.For the city, this is significant given its experience with civil works such as roads and drainage, which have often gotten trapped in a cycle of delays.With this, a municipal body can no longer leave a cancelled tender hanging indefinitely. The deadline creates a clear administrative clock, meaning a failed tender process can move quickly into its next stage instead of forcing the city into months of temporary arrangements.“This has been done to ensure that the timelines of commencing projects is streamlined. There is no delay in the tender process. Besides the timelines of the tenders, ULB department has reiterated engagement of third party inspection and monitoring agencies mandatory for projects costing Rs 5 crore and above, strengthening the quality-monitoring mechanism for large public works,” said an MCG official, privy to the matter.He added that these directions do not apply to sanitation tenders, since these cover only engineering works such as roads, drainage and other civil works.“If implemented strictly, the seven-day tender-recall rule could ensure that a cancelled tender does not become another dead end. In the city, we have lately observed that several tenders of civil works have to be recalled because of the absence of bidders. If bids are not received or the process is cancelled after technical evaluation, it is often seen that such tenders are then floated again only after they are pursued by the councillor or residents,” said ward 11 councillor Kuldeep Yadav.
