ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Winner of a second tender of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) opened on Tuesday appeared to further confirm the allegation by a citizen that the process of awarding two contracts of Rs2.2 billion for widening the Kashmir Highway had been manipulated and the lowest bidders were pre-determined.

Like the first contract of Rs1.1 billion won by Kingcrete on Monday, the second contract too went to Ghulam Rasool and Company (GRC) as predicted by citizen Wazir Ali in a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, CDA high-ups and a few newspapers on Sunday. His cries of ‘wolf’ seem to have stirred the conscience of some in the CDA at least.

“We have called a meeting to discuss the matter and it is possible new bids are called,” CDA's member engineering Tahir Shamshad told Dawn.

CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Khan had formed a committee to review the bids after the storm burst broke on Monday over the alleged underhand dealings.

Kingcrete's winning bid was 47 per cent above the CDA estimate for the work, and GRC's 44.69 per cent -- again as predicted by deep throat Wazir Ali in his letter.

Member, engineering, Tahir Shamshad justified the higher rates, saying the National Highway Authority (NHA) rates that CDA follows had risen by 30 to 35 per cent between 2006 and 2008.

“Why can't the 47 per cent higher bids for the two contracts be accepted when the Zero Point Interchange project was awarded 77 per cent above the 2006 schedule of National Highway Authority?”, he asked. However only this year, the construction of the road linking Kashmir Highway with I J Principal Road, having the same specifications as the Kashmir Highway project, was awarded to a contractor who quoted 16 per cent above the NHA 2008 rates.

Last year, the former CDA chairman Kamran Lashari had cancelled two road construction contracts for being 18 per cent above the prevalent rate.