September 22nd 2023.
MARGAO: The South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) recently floated an e-tender worth ₹3.88 crore for the collection of sopo fees in the wholesale fish market. As per the schedule, the last date of opening of the technical bid was scheduled at 3 pm on Friday. The last date and time of submission of the bid documents was also scheduled up to 3 pm on September 18.
However, the fate of the e-tender hangs in balance, due to strong reservations expressed by the bidders and the SGPDA over a clause that the bidders should have experience in the fishing business/ activities for at least 10 years. To address this issue, the SGPDA held an emergency meeting last week and took a call to make a representation before the government to relax the clause.
When The Goan called up the SGPDA Chairman, Krishna Daji Salkar to find out whether the PDA will open the technical bid on Friday evening as per the e-tender schedule, the PDA head said that the Planning body has made a representation to the government to take a call on the decision to relax the fishing business clause, indicating that the tender process is unlikely to move forward at least for the moment.
He also asserted that the PDA will wait for the government's decision for a fortnight before taking a call to go ahead with the e-tendering process. Salkar further stated that the PDA had taken the stand on the fishing business/ activities clause due to objections raised by the bidders at the pre-bid meeting.
Interestingly, the Town and Country Planning Board had its meeting on Thursday, but the representation made by the Planning body to take a call on the fishing business/ activities clause in the sopo tender did not find a mention at the meeting.
A glance at the tender conditions reveals that the PDA had inserted a host of conditions in the e-tender, including the mandatory condition that the agency must have minimum 2-year experience of sopo collection, maintenance and revenue collection of market within the State of Goa. The tender also includes a controversial condition that the agency should have fishing business/ activities for at least 10 years with a turnover of ₹1.5 crore and above.
The E-TENDER SCHEDULE includes the date and time of pre bid meeting/conference on 04/09/2023 at 11 am, the last date and time of submission of bid documents on 18/09/2023 up to 3 pm and the last date of opening of technical bid on 22/09/2023 at 3 pm.
Work on phase I of the wholesale fish market in Margao is likely to be completed by the year-end, regardless of the outcome of the tender. This shows that, regardless of the complexity of the situation, the SGPDA is committed to ensuring the project is completed on time.
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