ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has cancelled the bid to hire 150 buses for 13 new routes and decided to call it afresh.

The CDA on Monday cancelled the highest bid as there was an objection raised by the second company which had participated in the bidding process.

The civic agency decided to call the bid afresh after making changes to the advertisement. CDA officials told Dawn that a few months ago bids were called for awarding the contract for plying 150 buses on 13 routes.

The officials said the civic agency, in the advertisement, had stated that the firms could submit bids either for diesel hybrid or electronic vehicle (EV) buses.

Decision made to call bids afresh after objection by one of two firms, say officials

In response to the advertisement, only two firms - Daewoo and Faisal Mover - submitted their bids and the bid of Faisal Mover (FM) turned out to be the lowest. They said FM deposited the bid with Rs321 per kilometre fare for diesel hybrid and Daewoo at Rs366 per kilometre fare for EV buses.

According to officials, there was a difference between the rate of hybrid and EV buses but FM applied for hybrid buses and its rate was lower and Daewoo submitted the bid for EV and its rate was higher, but the category was different.

When the bids were opened, FM was declared the lowest bidder, however, Daewoo pleaded before the CDA that since there was an option in ad that participating companies can apply for hybrid or EV modes; therefore, it had applied for EV and quoted the rate for it, which were obviously higher than that of FM, but the category was different. It also pleaded that the rate of EV and hybrid can’t match with each other.

The officials said due to the objection, the CDA earlier had decided to form a grievance redressal committee (GRC) to decide the fate of the bid. When the matter was brought into the notice of CDA Chairman Mohammad Usman, he ordered cancellation of the bid to avoid any controversy and litigation. He also directed the engineering wing to call bids afresh as soon as possible.

On the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the CDA had decided to launch new bus services on 13 routes. Earlier, the prime minister had inaugurated three metro bus services - Orange Line, Green Line and Blue Line. The buses that are plying on the three routes belong to the CDA.

However, under the new arrangement for plying buses on 13 routes, the CDA has decided that instead of procuring buses, it will hire services of a private bus company, which will ply 150 buses. The firm would be paid against per kilometre of travel.

According to a study, the 13 routes included that one from Police Foundation/Orange Line Station to Red Line Faiz Ahmed Faiz Station at I-8, Allama Iqbal Station to Red Line Potohar Station, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) to Secretariat, D-12 to G-10, F-11 to Red Line F-8 Station, G-11 to Pims, Aabpara to Tramri Chowk, Nilor to Khanna Pul, Pirwadhai Chowk to Faizabad, B-17 to 26 Number Chungi and I-16 to 26 Number.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022