The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) government has decided to offer 48 MW Jagran-II hydropower project for rebidding after a controversy emerged in the award of the project. Chaudhry Yasin, Minister for Irrigation, AJ&K, who is also head of the AJK hydroelectric board, told Business Recorder that he took this decision at a meeting of the board to ensure transparency in the award of this important project.
The French agency, Agence Française de Development (AFD), has earmarked Euro 68 million for the project and one million Euros for engineering services. The world's biggest Chinese company in hydropower generation, Sinohydro, which was the lowest bidder through its local representative, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister's Office for intervention accusing the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Electric Board (AJK-HEB) of accepting the second lowest bid by another Chinese company, CWE.
He said, Sinohydro offered to do the job for Rs 6.9 billion while CWE demanded Rs 7.4 billion. The letter written to the Prime Minister's Office by Sinohydro's representative said that at the tender opening on September 23, 2013, the read out price of Sinohydro and its local partner was the lowest. During the bid evaluation period, not a single clarification was sought from them with respect to any deficiency in the bid.
The letter said that the LHC set aside blacklisting of Sinohydro's partner by the Punjab government on February 13, 2014. It added that the judicial order removed the ground on which the evaluation committee decided to exclude the lowest price bid. The other objections to the bid pertained to some missing cost items, which are covered by the undertaking given by the Chinese company that its cost offer includes the entire scope of work.
However, Gorsee said, Sinohydro's partner was blacklisted by the Punjab Emergency Services Department when the bids were submitted and opened. He claimed that the LHC did not dispense with blacklisting and only remanded the matter to the competent authority for a decision. "We discussed all pros and cons of the project and decided to offer it for rebidding so that the project can be awarded to the real lowest bidder," Chaudhry Yasin added.