The bidding tender for the construction of a four-lane bridge over the Ganga in Bihar involving Chinese firms was cancelled due to “technical reasons”.
“The tender for bridge construction was cancelled on June 25 on technical grounds by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH)”, said Bihar Road Construction Department Minister Nand Kishore Yadav.
A fresh bid is said to have been invited and the bids would be open till July 30.
The tendering process for the proposed bridge parallel to Mahatma Gandhi Setu on Ganga, connecting Patna to north Bihar, was said to be in final stage.
Earlier, MoRTH had sanctioned ₹2, 927 crore for the 14.5 km bridge project on National Highway-19 (5.63 km on river while, 8.87 km was to cover approach road from both sides) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a special package for Bihar.
Officials in the State Road Construction Department told The Hindu that five out of seven firms which were qualified for final bidding for the construction of the bridge had joint ventures with Chinese firms.
“You may say that this was the first mega project in Bihar which was cancelled as the contractors had joint ventures with some Chinese firms,” said an official of the department requesting anonymity.
The seven companies which were earlier qualified for the final bidding were Tata Projects, Gammon India, L&T, SP Singla, Afcons Infrastructure, Ashok Buildcon and Dilip Buildcon.
Among them, five had joint venture with Chinese partners for technical and resource assistance, said the official.
It is said that the decision to cancel the tendering process was taken in view of the recent face-off between Indian soldiers and Chinese troops at Galwan valley in Ladakh.