The Hindu 10.07.2009
Tiruchi Corporation to take to e-tender system from today
S.Ganesan
| Bids for all works valued above Rs.10 lakh to be submitted online henceforth |
The e-bids could be opened only after the expiry of the deadline for submission
Registered contractors have already been briefed about the system
TIRUCHI: The Tiruchi Corporation would take to the e-tender system from Friday.
Bids for all works valued above Rs.10 lakh would have to be submitted online henceforth and the corporation would no longer accept submission of bid documents in person, Commissioner, T.T.Balsamy told The Hindu.
Statewide initiative
The move comes as part of a state-wide initiative under which all corporations have been instructed to go for the e-bid system, introduced in association with the National Informatics Centre.Apart from enabling filing of bids from anywhere, the system was also expected to usher in transparency in the process.
The corporation has already made available tender notices and schedules online wherein contractors could download the schedules free of cost from the State government portal, tenders.tn.gov.in. But till now they were submitting the hardcopy of the bids.
Digital signature
From Friday, bids have to be uploaded online through the same portal. Special software has already been installed and senior officials including the Commissioner, City Engineer and Executive Engineers have been provided with digital signature cards for accessing and processing the bids.
The e-bids could be opened by the officials only after the expiry of the deadline for submission.
Officials said an approved private agency, which has been roped in to assist the civic body in implementing the programme, has been asked to nominate a couple of trained staff to assist and clarify doubts of contractors at the corporation office. Registered contractors have already been briefed about the system recently.
Leased line network
Meanwhile, the corporation has also decided to upgrade its own online network by going in for a managed leased line network of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.
The present 256 Kbps leased lines has been found to be inadequate and too slow for the online services, especially the online tax payment facility.
The corporation would invest about Rs.11 lakhs for upgrading to 1/2 Mbps leased lines.
