Chennai: In a move that could save crores of taxpayer money and curb allegations of bribery through contractor pre-fixing, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has thrown open even small civic works to competitive bidding. The first results show project costs falling by 25–30%.Lower bids are among the first signs that opening all civic works to competitive bidding is increasing competition and reducing costs for GCC. In the first batch of tenders floated after the TVK govt took office for road-cut restoration works, contractors quoted up to 25–30% below official estimates. Raising hopes that more roads and civic works can now be completed with the same standard project costs instead of inflated project costs.Last week, GCC’s bus route road department floated multiple tenders for road-cut restoration works. In one such tender in Ambattur zone for a road-cut project estimated at ₹25 lakh, nine contractors participated. While one contractor quoted 5% above the estimated value, eight quoted below it. Five contractors quoted nearly 25% lower, bringing the project value down to around ₹17 lakh. The lowest bidder secured the contract after quoting 25.9% less than the estimate, helping GCC save around ₹9 lakh on a single tender.Similarly, in another road-cut work in Tondiarpet worth over ₹30 lakh, nearly 10 contractors participated and quoted up to 25% below estimates.In Sholinganallur, however, GCC is reviewing a tender after some contractors quoted 36% lower than the estimated value, raising concerns over whether quality can be maintained within such a reduced budget.“Earlier, for small works, officials would pre-fix contracts to locally known contractors, citing urgency. Bids usually came in 10% above project cost. Now everyone is participating and naturally quoting lower to secure the work. But some are becoming too aggressive and quoting even 35% less. The onus is now on GCC engineers to ensure quality is not compromised at the site level because contractors may reduce the quantity of asphalt or cement to retain profits within the budget,” said greater Chennai contractors association president Rama Rao. “In a place where they have to put 40mm bitumen, they will put 30mm. Such site-level irregularities might still occur,” he said.Rama Rao said GCC had floated tenders for the same stretches of road-cut works at similar budget estimates in the past, but the contracts were awarded at higher values.“If it were a ₹25 lakh tender, contractors executed it for ₹27.5 lakh. Now the same work is being taken up for ₹16 lakh. It needs to be questioned how officials allowed budgets to be inflated by 35–40% in the past,” he said.One of the first directions from the MAWS department headed by chief minister C Joseph Vijay was to allow open bidding for all tenders and stop pre-fixed or limited tenders, which were often kept open only for a few hours.A GCC official said tenders quoted at 30% below the project value are being reviewed. “We have to ensure the quality of work too,” the official said. The civic body has floated close to 150 tenders in the last few days for various minor works.
