No foreign firm submits bid for Central Vista revamp project

No foreign firm has submitted consultancy bid for architectural and engineering planning of the Centre's ambitious plan to redevelop Central Vista, Parliament and develop common Central Secretariat, official sources said.

According to the sources in the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, six Indian architectural firms have submitted bids for the project being executed by the Central Public Works Department.

On September 2, the ministry had invited request for proposal (RFP) from national and international design and planning firms for the ambitious project of the Modi government.

The last date of submitting bids was September 30.

"We were also expecting foreign architectural firms to submit bids as it is a very big project of the central government. However, no international firm has submitted bids for it," the sources told PTI.

The sources, however, said that in the RFP, there is also a provision according to which selected architectural firms can associate sub-consultant, including foreign firm, which has domain specific specialisation during the execution of the ambitious project.

There was no immediate reaction available from the Central Public Works Department.

Among six Indian architecture firms, Hafeez Contractor is learnt to have submitted bids for the ambitious project.

A committee of experts will now evaluate the technical proposals submitted by firms. Financial proposals of only those bidders qualifying in the technical proposal will be opened.

The government has so far not publicly shared the estimated cost of its project.

According to the plan, the government would redevelop the 3 km-stretch of the Central Vista spanning from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate. The ministry said the entire project will be completed by 2024.

Terming it a "dream project" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had recently said that redevelopment or development of Parliament would be done by 2022.

For the redevelopment of Central Vista and development of Common Central Secretariat for various ministries, several buildings like Shastri Bhawan, Transport Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan and Krishi Bhawan may be razed.

However, the government will take a final decision on it only after designs to be submitted by architectural firms are selected.

On September 18, Puri had said buildings that had been built in 1960s and 70s should have been torn down many years ago.

"Something went wrong there," Puri had said.

Using cricket terms to take a dig at earlier governments, the minister had said, "Either we (CPWD under previous governments) lowered the standard or we took eyes off the ball. We wanted to spin the ball but something else happened and in the process it was a hit-wicket.