HC seeks traffic data from HMDA on Outer Ring Road
Attempt suspected to award user fee collection contract to kin of powerful politicians
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday directed counsel for HMDA to check and find out why it has not provided the traffic data on Hyderabad Outer Ring Road while inviting the bids for collection of user fee for a road length of 158km.
Justice K Lakshman, while dealing with a petition filed by M/s Sahakar Global Ltd that alleged the authorities appear to have decided to assign the said tender to two firms -- Eagle Infra India Ltd and Inderdeep Constructions, both related to powerful politicians -- without giving a chance to other contractors.
Senior counsel Chandrasen Reddy, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that a plan had been made to rule out competitors who have come up with “unreasonable time frames” in an arbitrary manner.
“They said the successful bidder has to pay an annual contract of Rs 500 crore per annum and that if the vehicular movement data is provided, other bidders may quote higher rates. Moreover, only 15 days’ time is given to submit the tender documents. No time is given to participants to evaluate the extent of vehicle movement and other details,” counsel told the court.
Thereon, Justice Lakshman directed the HMDA to explain the queries raised in the petition by 10.30 am on November 8, the last day for submission of tenders.