Hyderabad: Citing technical glitches, the HMDA on Sunday cancelled the e-auction at Uppal Bhagat and for left-over plots after software glitches affected bidding by 70 registered persons.
A total of 95 plots, including 82 developed plots and 13 within the HMDA approved private layout (gifted to HMDA) were put on e-auction. The major action was at Uppal Bhagat layout, where 67 plots are up for sale.
Highly-placed sources said the HMDA had collaborated with eProcur-ement Technologies Ltd, a Gujarat-based company, to conduct the e-auction. The HMDA had agreed to a minimum of Rs 3,000 and maximum of Rs 5,000 per successful auction.
ICICI Bank had agreed to process the financial transactions for both eProcurement Techno-logies Ltd and HMDA.
As soon as the auction began, there were technical problems with the eProcurement Technolo-gies Ltd servers and bidders were not able to participate in the auction in the eight-minute grace period after the 12 noon cut-off time.
Surprisingly, more than 10 bidders had bid the highest amounts for every minute after the noon deadline.
Sources said the servers maintained by eProcurement Techno-logies Ltd started giving problems at this time. Besides, technical problem with the banker was also stated as a reason for the cancellation.
HMDA commissioner B, Janardhan Reddy said that e-auciton had been cancelled to maintain transparency.
He said that the HMDA would conduct a fresh auction after constituting an expert committee on Monday.
He said the HMDA would refund the bidding and registration amounts to bidders who participated on Sunday.
Earlier, the HMDA had postponed the auction to September 29 and 30 due to technical reasons. There is no extension of time for payment of earnest money deposit (EMD) and those paid earlier will be considered.
