TSECL rejects claim on irregularity in tendering

The TSECL has issued a statement on Tuesday against the allegation claimed by Anup Bhowmik with reference to a PIL filed before the High Court of Tripura.

The statement said,

The petitioner Shri Anup Bhowmik was never an Employee/ Engineer of TSECL

He was the ex-employee of N-Arc Consulting Pvt. Ltd., a consultant farm deputed as the PMA for IPDS and DDUGJY project.

Due to his insubordination / complainant nature against his superiors, he was transferred to Triputi (AP). Thereafter, he has send mail/ complaint to his all authorities of N-Arc consultants against his superior & Copy was marked to Hon.CM, Tripura & MD, TSECI. He has not joined Tirupati but he has submitted unconditional apology to employer and was assured not to raise such allegations in future. Subsequently, he was fired from that farm.

Further it is heard that, he had some connections with M/s MHIDPL & had some monetary dealing in the tune of lacs of Rupees with Maa Harsiddhi Infra Developers Private Limited. He is still threatening about blacklisting of MHIDPL. from TSECL. It transpires that Shri Bhowmik is habitual complainant.

First time DDUGJY Ph-II, tender was floated on January-2019, & it was cancelled due to technical mistake in taxation part of bidding process. There was no other reason for refloating the tender.

Thereafter second time tender was refloated on June-2019. While finalizing the same tenders of DDUGJY as per SBD of REC, all codal formalities were compiled by TSECL and the actual value of LOA to said bidder was Rs.135 crores was issued and not of Rs.160 crores as mentioned in the press clippings today.

As per the REC requirement, Safety officer was appointed by TSECL, but it was wrongly quoted.

As far as the calibration/ inspection of material is concerned, it is clarified that all major materials were inspected jointly by the M/S REC Ltd and TSECL representatives at the manufacturer’s/ vender’s location. During pandemic period, a national level acclaimed third party namely. Energy Research and Development Agency (ERDA) by TSECL was deputed for quality assurance.

As per the eligibility criteria of the tender document is concerned, the eligibility need was to carry out 1305 km of line erection (both HT and LT). Maa Harsiddhi Infra Developers Private Limited has erected around 2073 km of such job.

The document submitted by bidders was accepted as per prevailing procedures. If any forged document is submitted by the any vender, legal procedures may be adopted for investigation of authenticity of documents.

As far as the e-tendering process is concerned, commercial bidding should be strictly through on-line process, where as for technical bidding, there is a provision of uploading/ submission of documents as per clause 17 of the SBD.

Previously, there was trend of higher bid values of every bidder. But in this case that trend was changed & bid value of M/S Maa Harsiddhi Infra Developers Private Limited was 11% less than the bench mark price resulting the saving of Rs.18 crores excluding taxes to the state.

Actual job completion by the vender is more than 73 % against the allegation of 45% and is in line with the other state’s progress. Reason for delay for completion of project is due to reasons like Anti CAA agitation, Covid-19 pandemic, rainy season, etc.

Considering these reasons, REC has already approved extension for completion of project till 31″December, 2021 throughout India and likely to be further extended up to March, 2022.

Overall progress of project is at par with other states having similar geographical conditions.

TSECL is having motive to complete the project as early as possible for providing better services to the people of Tripura.