Contractors oppose removal of bid limit to ensure quality

Margao: The All Goa Road Contractors Association has expressed strong opposition to the PWD’s recent decision to eliminate the practice of rejecting all bids quoting 20% below the estimated project cost. The association has demanded that the PWD reinstate the “under 20%” ceiling to ensure construction quality standards are maintained.The PWD recently announced the withdrawal of a circular where all bids quoting 20% below the estimated cost were outright rejected. Instead, it was announced that the PWD decided to allow such bids, but the lower the bid, the higher the performance guarantee applicable to the contractor. The new tender conditions came into effect on June 1.The members of the contractors’ association warned that without a specified lower limit on bidding, project quality could be compromised. They highlighted the risk of contractors quoting significantly below reasonable costs while being unable to deliver quality work.The contractors already submitted a memorandum outlining their concerns to chief minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the PWD portfolio. They plan to meet Sawant again to press their demands.They argued that the removal of the restriction would open the floodgates for contractors from outside the state to bid for projects. “They may quote 40-45% below the estimated cost. And if this happens, they will secure tenders, execute work poorly, and disappear. The PWD will then struggle to monitor the quality of the work,” a contractor explained.The issue also came to the fore at the recent South Goa zilla panchayat meeting. Voicing concern that the removal of the tender restriction would affect the quality of construction, the ZP members urged govt to reconsider the decision.Replying to queries, the contractors strongly refuted criticism that contractors were compromising on the quality, which leads to quicker deterioration of newly built roads. Instead, they said that constant and haphazard road-digging by various agencies, primarily due to a lack of coordination among them, leads to bad roads.