Hyderabad: The 811 crore rupees tender for the Somasila High Level Lift Canal project has run into rough weather following allegations that a powerful contractor has got tailor made conditions incorporated into the tender notification. The company, which has expertise in pipeline projects, shot into the limelight during the second phase of the Jalayagnam irrigation contracts. With the help of then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s close aide and MP, the company successfully bagged contracts after forming a cartel with other major players.
The company has also bagged three packages in outgoing Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s pet project, the Chittoor drinking water scheme. The political bosses behind the company are trying to complete the tender formalities by March 1 to avoid the election notification. According to sources, the executing agency — the irrigation department — invited tenders for the Somasila HLC project with certain clauses. After the pre bid meeting, it issued a corrigendum, incorporating new clauses that will eliminate competitors for the company. “The department added a new clause, that the bidding company should have supplied, erected and commissioned minimum four electrical motors of 1.35 MW each,” sources said.
The motors component is about 10 per cent in the total project while 90 per cent forms the pumps and pipes. Ironically, the department allowed a mere memorandum of understanding with the supplying companies for pumps and pipes, but insisted that the bidding company should either manufacture motors or enter into a joint venture for the minor component of motors.
Secondly, the company succeeded in getting the irrigation department to put in a condition, for the first time, barring companies that have applied for corporate debt restructuring in the last two financial years. “This will eliminate top companies in the country which have expertise in lift irrigation projects because they applied for CDR,” sources added.
The Somasila High Level Canal project was the brainchild of finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy since it would cater to the irrigation and drinking water needs of his native constituency, Atmakur. With irrigation minister A. Sudarshan Reddy too backing the project, the outgoing Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, approved the project and even laid the foundation stone.
