CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has suspended an executive engineer after six limited tenders floated for hiring excavators at the Perungudi dump triggered allegations of favouritism and inflated rental pricing that exceeds the actual cost of excavators itself.
The tenders, issued for hiring PC200 excavators or earthmovers for 105 days at a total cost of nearly Rs 3 crore, were published around 5 pm on Thursday and closed at 3 pm the next day, effectively giving contractors less than 24 hours to submit bids. The bids were scheduled to be opened the following day.
The controversy erupted after screenshots of the tender portal circulated online, with critics questioning the urgency behind issuing the contracts under the limited tender category and asking whether the contractor had already been decided in advance.
Arappor Iyakkam activist Radhakrishnan, who raised the issue publicly, alleged that the rental amount appeared excessively high and questioned whether the corporation would end up spending more on rent than the actual purchase cost of the excavators.
He said the concern extended beyond a single excavator tender and alleged that limited tenders were repeatedly being used for routine civic procurements. He also questioned why work orders and tender status details were not available online.
Following the backlash, GCC commissioner J Kumaragurubaran suspended the executive engineer concerned.
“The engineer acted out of urgency,” the commissioner said. He added that the primary violation was the failure to provide the mandatory tender period, which should have been at least seven days for tenders worth around Rs 48 lakh.
He maintained that the issue arose from operational urgency at the Perungudi dump rather than any ulterior motive.
The corporation has since withdrawn the tenders and plans to re-float them with a seven-day bidding window.
“Directions will be given to officials not to float limited tenders,” he said.
The commissioner, however, rejected allegations that the contracts had been deliberately split to avoid higher-level approvals. He said the works had been divided into operational segments and separate tenders were floated for each segment.
He also rejected claims that renting excavators was more expensive than outright purchase, saying critics were comparing only machinery costs while ignoring fuel, drivers, operations, maintenance and replacement expenses covered under rental contracts. “That is why the government is going for O&M,” he said.
In a separate action, the corporation also suspended a park overseer over allegations of collecting money from employees.