No tender, no money: Karnataka govt rejects BBMP’s ‘emergency’ logic to bypass bids

In a setback to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the state government has turned down its request to undertake road and drain projects worth Rs 1,171 crore without calling tenders.

The Urban Development Department found that most of the projects were not of an emergency nature as claimed by the civic body.

The BBMP and the state government had come under widespread criticism for the city’s bad roads during the rains in October and November last year. The civic body had cited the flood damage to bypass the tender process under Section 4(A) and (G) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act, which deals with “periods of natural calamity or emergency declared by the government”.