The Indian Express                26.04.2013

Bidders refuse to bid, MC fails to auction multi-level parking lot

The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation was forced to cancel the auction of its multi-level parking lot situated at Zone-A headquarters on Monday after bidders refused to bid on the base price fixed by the civic body, terming it too high.

The MC, whose contract with the previous contractor ended on March 28, was asked to continue for a month on additional price of Rs 2 lakh. But now with this auction too getting unsuccessful, the MC itself will maintain the parking lot till it is successfully auctioned.

The auction was organised at Zone-A headquarters in which only 11 bidders participated. The reserved price of the parking lot was kept at Rs 37.44 lakh.

Kamlesh Bansal, commissioner, zone A, said, "The auction has been postponed as of now as bidders refused to bid." He added that the new date for auction would be announced soon.

Commenting on increased reserved price as compared to Rs 28 lakh last year, a source from MC zone A said, "We cannot give the parking lot at a throwaway price as other parking lots in posh localities are fetching huge amounts. We need to cover our losses."