A board meeting of Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd. (KMCL), chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday, gave its approval for opening the financial bid submitted by a consortium on the elevated mass rapid transit system (MRTS) for Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
With this, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the general consultant for the project in the two cities, can open the financial bid submitted by the consortium led by Bombardier Transportation Holdings USA Inc. for the Rs.5,581-crore project.
Official sources told The Hindu that the decision to open the financial bid was taken after the official representing E. Sreedharan, Principal Adviser to the DMRC, informed the board meeting that leaving the bid half-way after opening and clearing the technical bid would “lead to litigation”.
The opening of the financial bid was opposed mainly by Managing Director of the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) Elias George and Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) V. Somasundaram. The KMRL MD, who did not attend the meeting, in a note said there was only a single tender for the MRTS and that conditions were being enforced by the consortium. He also favoured retendering as another player had evinced interest, sources said. Mr. Somasundaram, on his part, expressed reservations about the estimate submitted by the DMRC.
Minister for Public Works V.K. Ebrahim Kunju urged the board to “take a decision instead of dragging it.” Following this, the Chief Minister and State Minister for Railways Aryadan Mohammed intervened and favoured the opening of the financial bid submitted for selecting the exclusive developer-contractor.
Once the decision is communicated, the DMRC can open the tender in the presence of the KMCL officials in Delhi.
The question is whether the financial bid will follow the CVC guidelines. There was scope for negotiations if there was variation, sources said.
Ministers K.M. Mani, P.K. Kunhalikutty, M.K. Muneer, Manjalamkuzhi Ali, V.S. Sivakumar, and Managing Director of KMCL P.I. Sheikh Pareeth attended.
