New rates bring hope for Margao car park

MARGAO: With the revised Goa Schedule of Rates (GSR) coming into force, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) can now afford to breathe easy over the matter of the proposed multi-level pay parking project , the tenders for which had evoked little to no response over the last couple of years.

“The revised rates of GSR will now enable more contractors to bid for the project.

As we expect to get good response from contractors for the fresh tenders for the project, the competitive bidding process will also ensure that the project is executed in a fairly economical manner,” a civic official said.

Nevertheless, the process of inviting fresh tenders based on the revised rates of GSR may take at least another two-three months, MMC sources said.

The approximately Rs 5.9 crore project has been trapped in a web of bureaucratic tangles and tendering issues over the last few years.

The tenders were invited afresh by MMC in December last year after the contractor who had bagged the earlier tender showed lack of interest in executing the project and declined to accept the work order.

After the tender floated by the MMC for the second time finding no takers despite an extension in time for accepting bids, the municipality had further extended the time by another two weeks.

Yet, not a single contractor had submitted a bid.

Prior to that, the project had got mired in controversy primarily owing to issues concerning the goods and services tax (GST) leading to inordinate delay in execution of the work.

Following frequent shuttling of files between MMC and PWD over the matter of GST calculations, it was finally realised that there was no tax liability on the MMC, and the project was tendered afresh with revised estimates.

The amount of Rs 3 crore that the MMC had received from the government as golden jubilee grants on the occasion of the state’s 50th year of Liberation in 2011 will be utilised for the project.

The remainder of the amount will be sourced from the unutilised grants the MMC has in its coffers.

Sources said that the revised rates will lead to a considerable increase of the estimated cost of the project.