AP govt says it will save over Rs 60 cr on irrigation project

The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday claimed it would be saving Rs 62.1 crore on the Veligonda irrigation project tunnel-2 work through reverse bidding process.

The government recently cancelled the work earlier awarded by the previous TDP regime for Rs 553.13 crore, including a tender premium of Rs 24.78 crore, and initiated the reverse bidding process.

In this, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) quoted a price of Rs 491 crore for executing the work, a press release from the Chief Ministers Office said.

The previous contract was awarded for 4.69 per cent excess but the value of the work was scaled down to Rs 528.35 crore in the reverse tendering. In the commercial stage itself the initial saving is Rs 40.63 crore, while the overall final saving after reverse bidding is Rs 62.1 crore, the release said.

This is the second irrigation project that was put up for reverse tendering and the two new contracts were bagged by MEIL, which recently came under the income tax department scanner.