Vijayawada: Road tenders cancelled on CM YS Jagan's orders

Vijayawada: In an unusual turn, the state government on Saturday cancelled the tenders called by the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department to develop roads connecting the district headquarters with mandal headquarters throughout the state in all the 13 districts.

Announcing the decision of the cancellation, principal secretary T Krishna Babu said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy wanted that the transparency should be reflected in the tenders though the transparent system was followed by the government.

Addressing the media along with chief engineer Venugopal Reddy, the principal secretary said that after learning from the officials that the government received 25 bids from 14 companies for the 13 works in 13 districts, the Chief Minister ordered re-tenders. "If more companies participated in the tenders, the expenditure would come down and the quality would improve," the Chief Minister said to have told the officials. The tenders for the works worth Rs 3,000 crore have been cancelled.

The principal secretary said that meetings would be conducted with the contractors to learn their problems and the chief engineers would be consulted for further action. He said that necessary permission would be sought from the Central government to take up the works two months later.

It may be recalled that there have been criticism in a section of the press over the invitation of tenders and the participation of the minimum number of companies in the bidding.