High Level Manipulation In Tender Is Worth Rs. 238 Cr.: Modus Operandi-3
It is surprising to know that the CMD/IRCON was not aware of the complaint made by Indian Railway owned PSUs – RVNL & RailTel
In our previous post we had highlighted that the “HIGH LEVEL MANIPULATION IN TENDER IS WORTH RS. 238 Cr.: MODUS OPERANDI-2“ in the a) ELIGIBILTY CRITERIA b) GCC CONDITIONS C) OEM’S ELIGIBILTY and D) VARIOUS CORRIGEDUMS were made to suit the favorite bidder.
We had contacted CMD/IRCON to know facts on this manipulation before we could publish and highlight the facts we got through our reliable source. It is surprising to know that the CMD/IRCON was not aware of the complaint made by Indian Railway owned PSU – RVNL and RailTel.
We tried to confirm the same from CGM/S&T/IRCON, initially the same was denied and later CGM/S&T informed that “We have received the complaint only from RVNL and the corrigendum were issued accordingly”.
However, after going through the corrigendums, it was found that there were No-Relevance with the complaint made by PSU’s. Moreover, corrigenda were made further restricting OEM’s and making more stringent for other eligible contractors to bid.
I. Tunnel Communication – 107 Cr
II. Signal & Telecom – 34.74 Cr
III. Passenger Amenities – 9.42 Cr
IV. Cellular Communication-49.99 Cr
After going through the TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION document consisting of 160 pages, the technical details for Part-I to Part-III have been specified. The Part-IV – Cellular Communications which is of approximately Rs. 50 Crore, only one line technical specification is mentioned i.e. “Cellular services based on LTE-R have to be extended in all tunnels as per extant RDSO/Indian standards”.
The Cellular Communications consist of “126” Supply items and “84” Services items and NO Technical details against any of these items are provided.
RVNL letter no. RVNL/S&T/Bid/IRCON/ Sivok-Rangpo dated 16.09.2022 page 2, Serial No. 4 sought the clarification against these items where BoQ does not match the requirement of the Cellular communication.
It is clearly mentioned that the required LTE-R mentioned in the tender specification is of captive network on the 700mhz class 28 band having 5MHz bandwidth, which does not match with the BoQ specified in the tender schedule, still no amendment or clarification as provided by the concerned tender issuing authority – CGM/S&T/IRCON.
Cellular service based on LTE-R is contradictory as cellular service is provided by TSPs license holders like Airtel, Jio, Vodafone etc. whereas LTE-R is a public safety network operated by Railways for train operation.
We are also in possession of the complaint letter address to CMD/IRCON and Copy marked to the Railway Board, deviating to the “Manual of Procurement of Goods, 2017”, circular No. F.1/16/2020-PPD dated 11.02.2021.
It was expected that the IRCON to refloat the tender after suitable amendments as per demand of stake holders for the level playing field so that there should be a competitive bid for savings to the public exchequer. But very unfortunate no-action has been taken till date.
People may not be surprised to know that the same modes operandi has been adopted by IRCON in previous Signal & Telecom Tender and since no-action has been taken by HIGHER authorities of Railway’s, this has given all the courage, making it a practice of IRCON to manipulate the open tender bidding process favouring a particular single bidder.
It is very difficult to figure out the depth of manipulation and modes of operandi between IRCON and a particular firm. Hence, we very sincerely urge CVC to intervene and investigate this BID as well as previous allotted tenders.
It is proven that concerned officials have done treachery with Our Nation when the country is celebrating 75 Years of Amrit Mahotsav under Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Leadership.
#Railwhispers will follow the further developments on the above subject.
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