Yet again, DTC plays games on the conversion of its buses to CNG
the Delhi Transport Corporation (dtc) has once again showed its hypocrisy regarding the Supreme Court's order to convert the existing bus fleet to compressed natural gas (cng). On the eve of the apex court's March 31, 2001 deadline, it issued a global tender for the purpose, the technical bid for which was to close on March 9, 2001. dtc 's double standards are apparent in the manner in which the tender was floated. Five companies -- Hindustan Motors, vip Buildcon Private Limited, Cummins Auto Services Limited, Ashok Leyland and a company from Calcutta submitted their bids. Media reports suggest that the tender was designed to ensure that only Nugas, a Delhi-based company, qualified for it. Much to its embarrassment, Nugas has said that it does not want to work with dtc.
Media reports also quote government sources confirming that the tender "is an eyewash". P K Sharma, chief executive officer of vip Buildcon, says: "We cannot qualify for the tender despite having all the relevant certification, which were issued by agencies in New Zealand after conducting a number of tests. dtc knows that no firm can get all the relevant tests done within a short period of time.
Incidentally, Rare Technologies, which had applied and qualified the first locally floated tender for conversion in March 1999, is not even a bidder this time. The reason: they have not been able to renew their provisional certificate, which expired in December 1999. The Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum (iip) is still testing one of the buses converted to cng by them. In a letter written to the ministry of surface transport, vip Buildcon states: "Although the testing of the engine and the cng storage system are justified, the remaining tests are superfluous. The extensive engine tests can be completed in two or three days and the other tests take six to eight weeks."
Bidders to the tender feel that the even the terms of payment in the tender are very ambiguous and dtc can get away without paying money to the converting agency for an unlimited period of time. One of the bidders has even put in a counter clause while submitting the tender that it will not accept these payment terms. Nugas is tightlipped about the whole issue and has refused to comment despite repeated requests.
This is not the first time that dtc has played foul. After a severe lashing from the Supreme Court for complete indolence, dtc issued a "global" tender notice for conversion of its buses to cng, but only in editions of few Indian newspapers, in May 11, 2000.
After this, Parvez Hashmi, Delhi's transport minister, went to press claiming that there were no takers for the global tender. However, an investigation conducted by Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, shows that this was apparently an incorrect statement. There were 56 parties that had replied to the tender and, in fact, two companies have confirmed this.
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