In just weeks of advertising for bids development of the Central Vista in New Delhi, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has published a tender notice in the newspaper Hindustan Times calling for bids from eligible architectural consultants for the Redevelopment of North and South Avenue MPs Houses.

The notice states that it is a design competition, the tender notice is mentioned as ‘Tende Notice’ and comes without a tender number which is required if you have to search for the notice either on the CPWD website or on the e-tender website. The ad also states that the press notice is available on eprocure.gov.in, but it isn’t accessible. Additionally, it gives the architects only 19 days to come up with a design for a project of this magnitude. A tender notice is supposed to be a public document.

This has given rise to fears that the tender has already been fixed and the announcement was only an after-thought.

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Several architects have complained and written to the email id given in the notice about inaccessibility of the tender. However, they have received no response.
Several architects have complained and written to the email id given in the notice about inaccessibility of the tender. However, they have received no response. -  “We have not been able to find this tender on either the CPWD site or on the e-procurement website. “Now this government has begun the practice of asking people to register on the website to download tenders, at times, we have to pay for the tender document, then there is the deposit of earnest money, which used to be for contractors and not for architect consultants as contractors provide jobs and are not a providing a service. Earnest money cannot be sought from service providers. Additionally, there is a bank guarantee sought, which is a percentage of the project cost; this also used to be only for the contractors, but now this government is asking for a bank guarantee from consultants too,” said Rishi Dev, who heads the eponymous Rishi Dev Architects and Associates.