Amaravati, Sep 19 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh transport department will call for fresh tenders of 13 projects in a bid to demonstrate crystal clear transparency in governance.
“Like never before, in order to demonstrate how transparent the present day administration in the state is, the transport department of the AP government has decided to call for fresh tenders pertaining to a total of 13 packages,” said an official.
Roads and Buildings Principal Secretary M. T. Krishna Babu said the Chief Minister was very clear that the system was not only transparent but also the stakeholders should feel the same.
“Therefore, as one section of the media raised certain doubts about the process, we have decided to call for fresh tenders,” said Babu.
However, he has highlighted that no single stakeholder had raised any complaint about the process.
Babu said the government believes in transparency and will continue to do so in all its processes.
“Certain clauses pertaining to the turnover of the company or the track record of the company were put in by the World Bank, no changes have been made by the government,” he said.
The Principal Secretary said any individual can verify this fact by visiting the World Bank website.
Meanwhile, he admitted that the tenders had attracted very less response though many players were eligible.
“We did observe that the response has been pretty low though a lot of companies, both in India and abroad satisfy the eligibility criteria,” he said.
Babu said the department will now actively reach out to all the eligible companies and encourage them to bid for the tenders, even as it investigates as to why they did not attract much response in the first place.
–IANS
sth/sdr/