The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Metrowater to open bids for desalination project on June 29

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 23, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Metrowater to open bids for desalination project on June 29

T. Ramakrishnan

Scrutiny process will take a couple of weeks more before the contract is awarded Considering the complexities involved in the evaluation of the technical bids, Metrowater made the scrutiny process "more exhaustive."

CHENNAI: Metrowater decides to open financial bids on June 29 for the Chennai desalination project. It is expected that the scrutiny of the bids will take a couple of weeks more before the city's water agency awards the contract to the successful bidder. The project envisages the production of 100 million litres a day or 200 MLD.

After two failed attempts, Metrowater, in November last, floated a tender for this project, adopting the two-cover bid system. The bids were received till mid-February. As usual, the technical bids were opened first and this was in February. The examination took nearly 100 days and four consortia of companies were found eligible. The financial bids will be taken up for consideration next week.

Considering the importance and complexities involved in the evaluation of the technical bids, Metrowater made the scrutiny process "more exhaustive" by employing the services of a Mumbai-based consultancy agency, Gherzi Eastern Limited, which had a tie-up with the German company, Lahmeyer International GmbH.

The findings of the consultants were, in turn, assessed by a team of experts belonging to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and the Anna University. In addition, the usual scrutiny process was gone through.

As regards the technical qualifications, the sources say that one of the conditions was that in the last 10 years, the bidders should have put up a 15 MLD or a 30 MLD plant for treating seawater or brackish water. "Though the raw water in this project is sea water, our thrust is on the experience in the field. We did not prescribe any particular process as we wanted to attract as many companies as possible. This is to ensure that the project becomes economically viable," an official says, noting that the selected firms have fulfilled all the norms and opted for the process of reverse osmosis.

The water agency has made "extra efforts" to see to it that there is no grey area in its tendering system in view of the litigation it faced on this project.

Asked whether the consultants visited any of the reference plants mentioned by the bidders, the official replies in the negative but adds that the need did not arise then, as the consultants did not express any doubts over the credentials of the bidders.

The German firm, whose services were used for technical evaluation, is credited with technical expertise and a standing of over four decades. Besides, the bidders, at the time of submitting the documents, were required to provide certificates from the clients of the reference plants and this was verified by the consultants.

Also, immense data is available on the subject of desalination plants, both by way of publications and journals as well as on the Internet.

"Had there been any need to visit the plants, the trip would have been arranged," the official adds.

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