UP govt amends terms for selection of consultant
Now, the overseas experience of bidders on projects of a similar nature will be counted
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has amended certain conditions/norms for the selection of a consultant to work out a roadmap to boost the size of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to one trillion dollars in five years.
Amendments were made to the Request for Proposal (RFP) document after the state government addressed 170 queries made at a pre-bid conference. The deadline for the submission of e-bids has been already extended to May 24. The technical bids will be opened on May 25.
“We have made amendment to the RFP and revised RFP document has been uploaded. Changes have been made on the basis of suggestions received from prospective bidders. We have relaxed the criteria about the team with only the core team required to work from Lucknow. Experts can work from anywhere,” said Alok Kumar III, secretary, planning department, Uttar Pradesh.
“In all, 15 amendments have been made to the RFP while 40 clarifications have been issued,” said another officer. Now, overseas experience of bidders on projects of a similar nature will be counted. The bidders would have to present two case studies.
A provision for setting up a committee of experts to assist a high-powered committee (HPC) in assessing the performance of the project has been made.
An amendment has been made to the penalty clause and the clause concerning the scope of work with the line “the agency needs to steer with a total responsibility to mobilise required investment” replaced by “the agency needs to steer with a total responsibility to prepare strategy to mobilise”.
“Amendments are significant. First, in relation to the experience of undertaking the similar projects, threshold limit of fee has been raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore, this would attract big and experienced companies. Second, the consultant would now have the responsibility of preparing only the strategy to mobilise the required investment. Earlier, they had to mobilise the required investment itself. Of course, consultant would be hand-holding the departments in this task. Third, the experience of working on overseas projects and with respect to mega cities would also be included in eligibility conditions. This should encourage global firms to participate in the bids. These changes should result in more firms participating in the bidding process. The government should complete the process of awarding the consultancy as soon as possible,” said Professor Yashvir Tyagi, former head of department, economics, Lucknow University.
The RFP document has described the task of consultant to be herculean. “This herculean task demands some giant steps to be taken by the state government to move forward. It needs some well thought out and long-term strategies on a sustained basis. This would also require organisational restructuring, focused policies and rules for more effective governance, faster decision-making process and improved accountability,” reads the RFP.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has attached top priority to the task. UP’s GSDP has been estimated to be around Rs 15.80 lakh crore in the RFP document. It will have to be boosted five times in five years to achieve the goal of one trillion dollars making the task more challenging. The Directorate of Economic and Statistics of the UP government, in its advance estimates, has indicated the GSDP for 20212022 was about Rs. 19.10 lakh crore.
The state government had issued the RFP for appointment of consultant during Yogi Adityanath’s first term of as U.P. chief minister. It was, however, cancelled.
The bids were invited again on March 15, 2022.
It began working on the idea of making the state a trillion dollar economy after Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated the idea at the global investors summit in Lucknow in 2018.
We have relaxed the criteria about the team with only the core team required to work from Lucknow. Experts can work from anywhere
ALOK KUMAR III, secretary, planning department, Uttar Pradesh