The Delhi authorities has scrapped its plans to acquire two air-conditioned boats for VIPs and VVIPs at a value of ₹6.2 crore and suspended two senior officers concerned within the procurement, minister Parvesh Verma stated on Thursday.
Verma, minister in-charge of the irrigation and flood management (I&FC) division, instructed HT that the tender course of has been cancelled. “We’ve cancelled the tender for the boats and we’re investigating the difficulty. The chief engineer and assistant engineer involved have additionally been suspended for issuing the tenders with out prior data,” Verma stated.
A day after HT reported on the plans in its version dated March 18, the minister ordered an inquiry into the beforehand issued tenders and “the circumstances beneath which they had been issued.” The workplace of the I&FC minister stated that instructions had been issued to the impact that “any future procurement of boats can be restricted to important features of the Irrigation and Flood Management Division, resembling surveillance, air pollution monitoring, and different operational necessities.”
In keeping with the beforehand issued tender, the federal government was procuring two VIP/VVIP boats, every with a capability to accommodate 16 to twenty individuals, with options resembling “cassette-type rooftop marine air conditioners,” “personalized enterprise class push-back VIP seats” and “a devoted pantry for serving meals”, amongst others.
Every vessel was to incorporate an open-rear deck with three-to-four-seater sofas for VIP public appearances.
“The boat to have an open rear deck space for VIPs public look. VIP sofa-type seating to be fitted on this space for 3 to 4 individuals,” the doc accessed by HT learn. The inside specs included “personalized business-class sort seats made from vegan leather-based with beautiful stitching, built-in hand rests with wood end, bottle holders, and a premium aesthetic look with hid LED and ambient lighting.”
The Delhi authorities had obtained flak from the Aam Aadmi Social gathering and the Congress, which termed the procurement of “luxurious boats” to be “wastage of public funds and case of misplaced priorities.”
The I&FC division issued a corrigendum on March 18 for the VIP boat tender, extending the bidding course of citing “administrative cause.” The bid submission course of was earlier anticipated to be concluded on March 18, however the deadline was revised to March 27, earlier than it was cancelled.
The Yamuna clean-up has been a precedence challenge for the BJP-led Delhi authorities. A roughly 48-kilometre stretch in Delhi from Palla to Badarpur (Delhi-Haryana border), and a 26km stretch from Wazirabad (draw back of Wazirabad Barrage) to Asgarpur Village (after Okhla Barrage)—lower than 2% of the river’s size—accounts for the most important air pollution load within the river.
