Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) plan to give advertisement rights on city buses to a private agency has run into controversy. Alleging that NMC favoured a particular agency, another bidder went to the high court, which directed reopening of the tender. Chairman of city transport committee Bunty Kukde too said the plan was wrong, and may lead to more disputes in future, as other operators have already registered objections.
After launch of new city bus service — Aapli Bus— in December 2016, NMC city transport department recently started the process to give advertisement rights on 387 Red buses. The plan is to appoint a private agency, which will display advertisements in and outside the buses for three years, and give some royalty to the loss making city bus service.
However, the department stopped accepting bids a day before the published deadline.
Om Advertisers, an agency working for buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) across the state, alleged that the department had even framed terms and conditions to favour a particular agency.
One of its owners, Inder Porwal, said, “Pre-bid meeting was held on July 17. Last date for submission of bids was extended from July 27 to 4pm on August 8. We deposited all fees on website — mahatenders.gov.in — on August 7. We were unable to upload bid on August 8 as tender was not visible on the website. The tender was removed from the website, which otherwise stays even after deadline. We inquired with the officials at the department, who said the last date was August 7, even though deadline of August 8 was clearly mentioned on all documents issued by the department itself. We filed a writ petition in the HC on Wednesday,” he said.
The petition was filed in the name of another owner Akansha Sanjay Kathuria. Petitioner’s advocate Kuldeep Pradeep Mahalle told TOI justices BP Dharmadhikari and ZA Haq directed NMC to accept bids up to 4pm on Wednesday either online or offline.
City transport manager Shivaji Jagtap said it was a mistake by the department but not an irregularity. “We accepted bids and extended opening of technical bids up to August 13,” he said.
Porwal added the department also inserted a new condition of NOC from bus operators even before submission of bids. “This condition was not there in original tender. Suddenly, the condition was put in to prevent agencies of other cities from participating. We raised an objection, following which the department made NOC mandatory only for qualified agency. There are few more such objectionable terms and conditions in the tender,” he said.
Kukde said bus operators should be given advertisement rights on the buses to get revenue without any hassles. “Operators have been made responsible for any damage to advertisement displayed by agency. How can an operator ensure it and pay for any damage? Operators itself look after advertisement rights in all cities, and even in the past Starbus service did that itself,” he said.
GREY AREAS
No Green Buses: 25 ethanol-run buses being operated by Scania Commercial Vehicles India Private Ltd are not part of advertisement rights even though they are running on hefty losses. Also, number of buses will increase to 55 and can be more attractive than Red buses for advertisements
Face-off: Selected agency to be given advertisement rights inside buses too in digital format. Bus operators are made responsible for safety of these advertisements. They will have to pay penalty in case of any damage. Digital advertisements will run off bus battery and centralized wiring, which is said to be very risky. Also, operators can demand compensation in case of any damage to buses like fading of paint etc. DIMTS cannot allow operation of buses in case of any minor problem in buses. Agency will be allowed to install and maintain advertisement systems between 11pm and 8am, which will also cause dispute with operators
No Mini Buses: New city bus service also comprises 45 mini buses, which are yet to join operations. Advertisement rights tender has no mention of these buses
